HX641 08457 
R154.H182N48      Record  ol  a  memorial 


RECORD  OF 


RECAP 

A  MEMORIAL  MEETING 


In  Honor  of  the  Late  Surgeon-General 


WILLIAM    A.  HAMMOND 


iihi  ••  a  i    i  HE 


new  York  Posi  Graciuat?  mescal  School  and  fiospital. 


February  23,   1900. 


In  Memory  of  Dr. William  A.  Hammond,  a  Poem.  A.  E.  LANCASTER. 

Hammond,  The  Man, D.  B.  ST.  JOHN  ROOSA, 

Hammond,  The  Physician  and     Jeurologist,       .  JOSEPH  COLLINS, 

Hammond,  The  Teacher,           ...  CH,  RLE!  L.  DAJ4A, 
Hammond,  The  Surgeon-General,      COLONEL  JOSEPH  R.  SMITH,  U.S.A. 

Dr.  Hammond,  The  Litterateur,         ...  A.  E.  LANCASTER. 

Hammond 's  Professional  Career,    .          .         .  ANDREW  H.  SMITH, 


Reprinted  from  THE  POST-GRADUATE,  May,  J900. 


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In  ittcmovy  of 
Dr.  William  A.  Hammond. 


He  radiated  health ;  his  genial  heart 
Was  like  a  sun  that  gladdened  with  its  warmth 
All  lives  in  touch  with  it ;  his  soul  was  rich 
With  loving-kindness,  gentleness,  and  strength. 
That  endless  boyhood  of  the  blood  was  his 
Which  carries  laughter's  music  in  its  tide 
As  well  as  that  of  tears.     When  stung  to  wrath 
Albeit  his  words  were  thunderbolts,  his  acts 
Were  oft  those  coals  of  fire  forgiveness  heaps 
Upon  the  famished  enemy  she  feeds. 
His  mind  was  hung  with  stars  of  hope  and  faith- 
Hope  for  mankind,  faith  in  the  upward  growth 
Of  what  is  mortal — from  the  toil-torn  slave 
Who  digs  the  earth,  a  clod  among  the  clods, 
To  him  whose  studio  is  the  stars,  whose  eye 
Questions  dim  space,  with  sun-brimmed  systems  thronged, 
Or  him  who  gropes  his  way  between  the  motes 
And  atoms  of  the  brain,  in  labyrinths  lost 
Blacker  than  chaos.     His  the  mind,  soul,  heart 
At  home  with  reason  and  imagination, 
In  love  with  intuition's  arguments, 
That  lightning  logic  of  a  super-sense 
Wiser  than  wisdom,  fleeter-winged  than  wit ; 
Mingling  among  the  lofty  as  their  peer, 
Greeting  the  lowly  as  a  brother — his 
The  nature  that  had  greatness  as  its  gift, 
And  used  it  as  the  minister  of  good. 

A.  E.  LANCASTER. 
New  York,  Feb.  25,  1900. 


HAMMOND,  THE   MAN.  [May 


NEW    YORK     POST-GRADUATE    MEDICAL    SCHOOL 
AND    HOSPITAL. 


A  Memorial  Meeting  on  Feb.  2j,  ipoo, 
in  honor  of  the  late  Surgeon- General, 

WILLIAM    A.    HAMMOND,    M.    D. 


HAMMOND,  THE  MAN. 

BY 

DR.  D.  B.  ST.  JOHN  ROOSA.* 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen: — My  first  acquaintance  with  Dr. 
Hammond  was  made  after  the  trial  in  Washington  which 
ended  so  unjustly.  I  was  introduced  to  him  by  one  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Sanitary  Commission,  the  late  Dr.  Cornelius  R. 
Agnew.  I  had  a  letter  of  introduction  in  which  the  evidence  of 
the  court-martial  was  enclosed,  and  the  statement  made,  that  a 
man  who  had  been  an  accomplished  and  successful  Surgeon- 
General  had  been  unjustly  condemned  by  a  court-martial,  and 
was  now  about  to  settle  in  New  York  as  a  private  practitioner. 
He  stated  to  me,  what  I  knew  from  general  reputation,  that  Dr. 
Hammond  was  a  man  of  more  than  ordinary  talent  and  accom- 
plishments, and  that,  in  his  opinion,  after  having  made  a  most 
thorough  investigation  of  the  matters  which  led  to  the  trial,  he 
had  been  most  unjustly  treated  by  the  country  which  he  had 
served  so  well.  It  so  happened,  although  I  did  not  know  it  un- 
til afterward,  that  as  a  medical  officer  of  volunteers  in  the  first 
three  months  of  the  war,  I  had  served  under  Dr.  Hammond 
when  he  was  a  medical  inspector  with  headquarters  at  Cham- 
bersburg,  Pennsylvania.  My  regiment  was  one  of  Patterson's 
army. 

As  the  days  went  on,  Dr.  Agnew  told  me  how  Dr.  Hammond 
came  to  be  appointed  Surgeon-General.  You  may  all  know  that 
Dr.  Hammond  had  been  an  Assistant  Surgeon  in  the  regular 
army  before  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  and  that  he  had  served 
some  five  or   six  years  with   great   distinction.      He  was    one  of 

*  Stenographic  report  by  Dr.  Ogden  Ludlow. 


i9oo.]  HAMMOND,  THE  MAN.  3 

those  officers  who,  besides  doing  his  routine  duty,  was  always 
engaged  in  special  scientific  investigation.  He  had  already  dis- 
tinguished himself  in  that  way,  although  merely  an  assistant 
surgeon  of  the  regular  army,  and  knocked  about  with  the  small 
forces  which  the  Government  sent  out  in  those  times.  He  re- 
signed from  the  army  and  accepted  a  professorship  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Maryland,  He  was  engaged  in  the  work  there  when 
the  war  broke  out.  He  resigned  that  position,  and  sought  re- 
appointment in  the  army,  and,  as  you  all  know,  necessarily  took 
rank  very  far  below  men  who  were  his  juniors  when  he  left  the 
service. 

When  the  war  broke  out,  there  was  a  Surgeon-General,  an 
accomplished  old  gentleman  who  has  served  through  the  Mexi- 
can war.  who  did  not  have  the  vigor  necessary  for  what  was  to 
occur  in  that  dreadful  strife.  The  Sanitary  Commission,  made 
up  of  men  who  are  now  nearly  all  dead — but  every  one  of 
whom,  as  it  happened,  I  knew  personally — took  upon  itself  to 
importune  the  Government,  through  the  Secretary  of  War,  for 
the  appointment  of  a  Surgeon- General  who  should  be  equal  to 
the  tremendous  responsibilities  of  that  great  civil  strife.  Ac- 
cordingly, they  went  to  see  the  Secretary  of  War.  The  mem- 
bers of  that  Commission  were  Professor  W.  H.  Van  Buren,  then 
a  professor  in  Bellevue  Hospital  Medical  College,  or  in  the  Uni- 
versity, I  have  forgotten  which;  Professor  Wolcott  Gibbs,  now 
living  in  Newport;  the  Reverend  Doctor  Bellows;  Frederick 
Law  Olmstead,  and  Cornelius  R.  Agnew.  "  Well,"  said  the 
Secretary  of  War,  "  Whom  would  you  suggest?"  They  went 
down  over  the  list  until  they  came  to  the  assistant  surgeons  who 
had  been  lately  appointed;  then  Van  Buren  put  his  hand  on  the 
name  of  William  A.  Hammond,  and  said:  "That  is  the  man 
whom  the  Sanitary  Commission  would  like  to  have.  I  know 
him,  and  served  with  him,  and  the  profession  has  confidence  in 
him."  Dr.  Hammond  was  finally  appointed  over  the  heads  of 
men  who  had  served  many  years,  but  the  choice  was  wisely 
made.  The  whole  course  of  his  life  in  the  army  showed  that  to 
be  true. 

As  I  say,  I  made  Dr.  Hammond's  personal  acquaintance 
when  he  came  here  to  practice  medicine  as  a  private  practi- 
tioner. He  was  immediately  appointed  a  lecturer  in  the  Col- 
lege of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,  and  I  saw  something  of  him 
at  the  various  medical  meetings,  and  I  was,  like  every  other  per- 


4  HAMMOND,  THE  MAN.  [May 

son  who  came  in  contact  with  him,  impressed  by  his  personality 
ease  of  diction,   and  the    readiness  of    explanation  when  any 
question  came  up  in  which  he   spoke;  and  I  was  likewise  im- 
pressed with   the   absolute  simplicity   of  his  manner,  and  his 
whole  conduct,  which  was  that  of  a  man  thoroughly  acquainted 
with  the  subjects   in  hand.     But  I  came  into  no  intimate  rela- 
tions with  Professo"  Hammond,  until  he  had  made  still  another 
change.     He  was  made  a  Professor  in   the  Bellevue    Hospital 
Medical  College,  and  after  holding  that  position  for  some  years, 
he  came  into  the  University  where   I  was  at  the  time  a  Profes- 
sor.    Then   my  intimate  relations  with  Hammond  began,  and 
they  continued  from  that  time  until  the  day  of  his  death.     One, 
of  the  pleasantest  recollections  of  my  life  will  be  an  evening 
that  he  spent  with  me  at  my  house  only  a  few  months  ago. 

Dr.  Hammond  was  pre-eminently  an  interesting  man.  He 
was  a  conversationalist.  There  are  very  few  of  them,  gentle- 
men. There  are  plenty  of  men  who  like  to  talk,  but  there  are 
very  few  men  who  are  ready  to  hear  them,  and  yet  how  interest- 
ing good  talking  is.  I  should  often  rather  go  to  the  Century 
Club,  and  sit  alongside  of  a  man  who  has  just  written  a  book  and 
hear  him  talk  for  half  an  hour,  than  read  his  book.  If  men  only 
knew  how  much  information  they  could  extract  from  a  man  like 
Hammond!  He  was  perfectly  willing  to  listen  to  you  or  talk 
to  you.  There  was  another  great  man  in  New  York,  who  has 
passed  away,  who  had  this  same  characteristic.  I  refer  to  the 
late  Dr.  Alfred  L.  Loomis.  He  was  always  ready  to  listen;  it 
was  evidently  one  of  his  ways  of  getting  information,  that  of 
learning  what  other  men  thought.  I  saw  a  great  deal  of  Ham- 
mond because  I  was  attracted  to  his  personality  and  enjoyed  his 
conversation  and  his  ways.  I  liked  his  enthusiasm,  and  his  un- 
witting exaggerations  of  what  he  could  do,  which  were  as  hon- 
est as  the  beliefs  of  any  person  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  He 
talked  as  if  he  thought  there  were  no  problems  in  medicine 
which  he  would  not  ultimately  solve.  It  was  a  most  interesting 
thing  to  see  how  near  he  came  to  solving  some,  as  yet  appar- 
ently insoluble,  and  how  clearly  he  expounded  others  which  re- 
main as  the  record  of  his  work.  But  there  was  a  great  deal  in 
his  conversation  and  manner  which  was  interesting  because  of 
its  freedom  from  cant  and  humbug. 

Wc  lectured  also  in  the  University  of  Vermont,  and  we  had 
ihere    a   colleague,    Professor   William   Darling,  who    has   also 


igoo.l  HAMMOND,  THE  MAN.  5 

passed  away.  Darling  and  Hammond  had  been  in  college  to- 
gether in  the  University,  and  Hammond  knew  Darling  tho- 
roughly well.  Darling  never  seemed  to  know  anything  but 
anatomy  and  Robert  Burns,  and  had  not  the  slightest  apprecia- 
tion of  what  it  was  to  converse,  and  he  invariably  inflicted  upon 
his  friends  all  of  Burns  that  he  could  remember,  or  else  he  gave 
lessons  in  anatomy.  One  day  Hammond,  Darling,  and  myself 
were  taking  a  walk,  when  Darling  began  his  quotations  from 
some  very  well-known  Latin  authors,  and  then  turned  into  the 
description  of  the  anatomy  of  the  forearm.  Finally,  Hammond 
turned  around  to  him  and  said:  "  Darling,  I  don't  want  any 
more  of  your  Brummagen  Latin;  I  don't  want  you  to  teach  me 
any  anatomy,  and  1  don't  want  to  know  anything  more  about 
Robert  Burns  "  That  shut  Darling  up,  because  he  had  nothing 
else  to  talk  about. 

Hammond  was  very  positive  in  all  that  he  knew,  or  thought 
he  knew,  and  that  is  the  kind  of  a  man  whom  I  relish.  Yet  he 
was  of  these  positive  men  whom  you  could  face  down  with  your 
own  opinions,  for  he  would  give  you  an  opportunity  to  express 
them,  and  if  you  could  convince  him  he  would  accept  them,  for, 
after  all,  he  was  only  after  the  truth.  I  once  knew  a  man  in  the 
profession  upon  whom  a  colleague  and  I  played  a  joke,  one 
which  we  could  not  have  played  successfully  upon  Hammond. 
This  was  the  joke.  We  made  a  point  at  one  or  two  meetings  in 
succession  to  contradict  whatever  he  said,  just  to  see  him  back 
down — and  he  did  invariably  back  down.  To  be  sure,  we  did 
not  know  whether  or  not  we  were  right,  but  we  were  simply 
testing  the  man's  capacity  to  defend  and  hold  his  opinions. 
Hammond  never  deserted  his  opinions  until  convinced  that  he 
was  wrong. 

At  one  time  there  was  a  medical  subject  upon  which  Ham- 
mond was  working  with  great  interest — the  pigment  degenera- 
tion of  various  tissues  in  the  body.  One  night  we  were  discuss- 
ing the  matter,  and  he  began  to  make  illustrations  of  the 
ophthalmoscopic  appearances  in  certain  cases.  I  said  to  him: 
"  You  don't  know  anything  about  that,  and  I  will  convince  you. 
Those  things  which  you  have  described  are  not  pathological 
but,  in  certain  eyes,  are  physiological."  He  replied:  "Of  course 
I  do  know;  I  know  as  much  as  you  do."  I  said  I  would  convince 
him  that  I  was  right.  His  answer  was:  "How?"  I  replied: 
"  Bring  these    patients  to    your    office,    and    I     will    come     by 


6  HAMMOND,  THE  MAN.  [May 

appointment  and  look  at  them  with  you."  He  willingly- 
agreed,  and  I  went  there,  and  looked  over  the  cases.  Before  I 
went  away  I  convinced  him  by  plates  from  Jaeger,  which  I 
brought,  that  he  had  been  mistaken  in  his  pathology,  and  he 
never  made  another  allusion  to  the  subject  except  to  admit  his 
previous  error. 

But  then  I  had  the  mortification,  if  you  may  call  it  so,  of 
sending  to  him  an  aural  case,  about  which  I  was  supposed  to 
have  some  knowledge,  which  I  considered  incurable.  He  made 
another  diagnosis,  and  absolutely  cured  the  case.  This  placed 
me  in  a  rather  awkward  position  with  the  family  of  that  patient. 
That  one  case,  I  must  say,  taught  me  a  great  deal  about  deaf- 
ness dependent  upon  disease  of  the  brain. 

There  was  another  matter  in  which  I  had  a  personal  rela- 
tion with  Hammond,  which  illustrated  his  thorough-going 
capacity  for  investigation  and  search  for  the  truth.  There  was 
a  great  deal  of  doubt  up  to  a  few  years  ago  as  to  what  were  the 
effects  of  quinine  upon  the  fundus  oculi  and  upon  the  membrana 
tympani,  and  upon  the  auditory  nerve.  I  persuaded  Dr. 
Rankin,  of  Newport,  who  died  a  year  or  two  ago,  and  who  was 
then  a  student  of  mine,  and  Dr.  Chapin,  of  Springfield,  Mass., 
who  is  still  living,  and  in  active  practice,  to  submit  to  taking 
rather  large  doses  of  quinine,  and  allow  me  to  examine  the 
effects  of  this  medication  upon  the  eye  and  ear.  Hammond,  as 
soon  as  I  told  him  of  my  experiments,  was  eager  to  let  me  fill 
him  up  with  quinine,  and  see  the  effect.  That  great  man  ac- 
cordingly came  down  to  my  house.  Between  six  o'clock  in  the 
evening  and  twelve  o'clock  at  night  he  took  a  rather  large 
quantity  of  quinine.  The  examinations  these  three  men  dem- 
onstrated, contrary  to  what  had  been  supposed  by  many,  that 
quinine  temporarily,  at  least,  whatever  it  may  do  ultimately, 
congests  the  auditory  canal,  the  membrana  tympani,  the  acoustic 
nerve  and  the  conjunctiva.  About  the  fundus  oculi,  we  always 
remained  in  doubt.  During  this  evening's  experimentation  that 
man  sat  and  submitted  to  experimentation,  although  having  a 
large  and  most  exacting  practice.  Our  experiments  were  after- 
wards abundantly  confirmed,  but  as  usual  due  credit  is  not 
always  given  for  them. 

But  Hammond  had  another  characteristic.  At  one  time,  in 
his  literary  career,  he  was  working  out  a  book  which  I  believe 
has  never  been  published.     It  was  all  about  John  Calvin   and 


igoo.J  HAMMOND,  THE  MAN.  7 

Servetus.  John  Calvin,  as  civil  ruler  of  Geneva,  is  said  to  have 
planned  and  carried  out  the  execution  of  Servetus.  He  and  I 
had  many  disputes  over  Calvin's  reason  for  doing  this,  and  at 
last  our  differences  of  opinion  on  this  subject  became  so  marked 
that  whenever  we  dined  together  he  would  begin  sooner  or 
later  to  talk  about  Calvin,  and  show  what  a  wicked  man  he  was 
for  burning  Servetus.  In  those  days,  I  used  to  gamble  with  my 
companions  that  in  fifteen  minutes  Hammond  would  bring  up 
this  perennial  subject. 

Hammond  was  a  great  host.  To  dine  as  his  guest  was  a 
pleasure,  such  as  you  will  rarely  have  even  with  the  most  gen- 
ial and  intellectual  of  hosts.  I  remember  very  well  a  dinner  at 
his  house  in  which  the  late  Dr.  Charles  Carroll  Lee  and  I  were 
the  only  gentlemen  present  who  were  not  Philadelphians. 
These  distinguished  men  from  Philadelphia  were  sitting  around 
the  board,  Hammond  was  a  member  of  the  Society  which  was 
meeting,  and  they  were  all  very  familiar  with  one  another. 
Weir  Mitchell  was  one  of  them,  and  Leidy  was  another.  As 
soon  as  the  soup  was  served,  the  guests  began  to  inquire  for  the 
champagne.  Hammond  said:  "  In  New  York  we  don't  give 
champagne  until  late  in  the  dinner."  Leidy  said:  "In  Phila- 
delphia we  begin  the  dinner  with  champagne,  and  don't  have 
any  other  wine."  Hammond  retorted:  "  Who's  giving  this  din- 
ner ?  "  to  which  his  guests  replied  that  they  were,  they  knew  he 
had  good  champagne  and  why  should  he  not  serve  it.  Ham- 
mond, the  good  host  that  he  was,  acceded  at  once  to  their  de- 
mands and  gave  them  the  champagne  when  they  wanted  it,  re- 
gardless of  custom. 

He  created  quite  a  diversion  at  another  dinner  when  there 
was  an  author  sitting  at  the  board  who  had,  in  a  treatise  on 
some  subject  in  medicine,  made  mention  of  the  Dark  Ages. 
You  may  know  that  some  of  the  Protestant  writers,  call  the 
Dark  Ages  the  time  when  the  Catholic  Church  had  absolute 
domination.  Hammond  turned  to  this  man  and  said:  "  Do  you 
know  that  your  book  has  been  put  in  the  Index  Expurgatorius?  " 
The  man  turned  visibly  pale,  but  Hammond  went  on,  and  told 
him  that  it  was  all  because  of  his  remarks  about  the  Dark  Ages. 
For  about  15  minutes  he  made  the  poor  man  believe  that  his 
book  had  really  been  placed  under  the  ban  of  the  Church.  I 
never  saw  him  fail  either  as  a  host  or  a  guest;  he  adapted  him- 
self to  the  situation  whether  at  a  small  and  friendly  gathering, 
or  at  a  great  state  dinner. 


8  HAMMOND,  THE  MAN.  [May 

I  shall  never  forget  that  dining  room  in  his  house,  and  that 
in  the  intervals  of  the  courses,  one  could  look  around  and  ad- 
mire the  evidences  of  his  cultured  taste,  as  shown  by  the  decor- 
ations and  the  inscriptions.  At  a  late  hour  in  the  evening  I  felt 
a  dread  at  the  statue  of  Buddha  in  the  hall.  I  did  not  wonder 
that  Hammond  could  hypnotize  people;  he  almost  hypnotized 
me  at  his  house.  It  is  a  sad  thing  for  a  hard  worked  doctor  to 
go  to  a  dinner  after  a  long  day's  work  and  hear  about  a  new 
kind  of  tumor,  or  a  new  discovery  or  about  some  mistakes  in 
diagnosis  committed  by  a  fellow  practitioner.  These  are  not 
interesting.  Hammond  did  not  do  that;  he  was  broad  enough 
to  carry  you  away  from  such  things  and  lead  your  mind  into 
pleasant  channels,and  thus  he  became  a  solace  and  a  rest  to  his 
guests. 

During  the  years  that  Hammond  and  I  were  so-called  clini- 
cal professors  in  the  University,  it  was  a  desire  constantly  ex- 
pressed by  him  that  these  men  who  came  to  New  York  to 
round  up  their  experience  and  to  complete  their  knowledge, 
should  have  some  place  other  than  the  benches  of  an  under- 
graduate medical  school  where  they  would  get,  for  example, 
one  lecture  a  week  in  ophthalmology,  and  one  or  two  in  ner- 
vous diseases.  Hammond  was  constantly  speaking  on  that  sub- 
ject, and,  so  far  as  my  memory  goes,  I  think  he  was  the  first  in 
the  University  faculty,  to  really  conceive  the  notion  of  post- 
graduate instruction.  It  was  under  his  urgings  that  that  fac- 
ulty established  what  they  called  a  post-graduate  faculty,  but  it 
was  a  post-graduate  faculty  in  name  only;  it  had  no  real  ex- 
istence, as  we  soon  found  out.  The  thing  was  an  utter  failure, 
as  it  deserved  to  be.  No  man  could  come  to  New  York  and  re- 
ceive post-graduate  instruction  in  that  diluted  way,  and  especi- 
ally profit  by  it.  For  a  number  of  years  he  and  Little  and 
Pallen  and  Sturgis  and  Piffard  and  myself,  worked  together  as  a 
so-called  post-graduate  faculty,  but  nothing  came  of  it.  Ham- 
mond never  lost  sight  of  this  idea,  but  personally  I  plead  to  a 
great  deal  of  indifference  to  the  subject  at  that  time,  although 
appreciating  highly  the  necessity  for  it.  The  task  of  founding 
such  a  course  seemed  to  me  too  great.  We  labored  very  hard  to 
induce  the  University  faculty  to  give  us  a  building  next  to 
theirs,  and  establish  a  post-graduate  school  as  a  department  of 
the  University.  For  good  reasons,  no  doubt,  they  declined;  then 
we  gave  them  one  year's  notice  and  resigned,  and  established  a 


igoo.]  HAMMOND,  THE  MAN.  9 

Post-Graduate  Medical  School.  We  organized  it  on  April  4, 
j  882.  The  first  meeting  was  at  my  own  house,  but  the  other 
meetings  were  very  often  at  Dr.  Hammond's  house  and  he  was 
the  soul  of  the  organization.  We  had  the  benefit  of  his  execu- 
tive capacity,  and  his  wide  experience  in  managing  large  num- 
bers of  men.  We  were  interrupted  for  a  time  by  the  prospect 
ot  a  union  with  Cornell  University,  and  I  could  astonish  the 
present  medical  faculty  of  Cornell  University,  if  I  showed  them 
the  printed  documents  and  manuscripts  which  passed  between 
the  newly  organized  faculty  of  the  Post-( Graduate  School  and 
the  Executive  Committee  of  Cornell  University.  I  may  publish 
them  at  some  time.  We  finally  began  our  work  in  earnest. 
When  in  18S8  he  left  New  York  and  went  to  Washington  to 
live,  he  declined  the  appointment  of  Professor  Emeritus,  for 
he  said:  "If  I'm  going  out,  I'm  going  out;  you  don't  want  to 
have  any  dead  wood." 

I  can  hardly  express  my  appreciation  of  his  thorough  devo- 
tion to  the  cause  which  we  inaugurated.  I  never  could  have 
been  induced  to  accept  the  office  of  President  of  the  institution 
if  he  had  not  been  at  my  right  hand.  I  never  quite  knew  why 
Hammond  insisted  upon  my  taking  it.  He  was  really  the 
President,  although  I  had  the  name.  He  was  thoroughly  de- 
voted to  the  interests  of  this  school,  so  that  the  smallest  detail  of 
management  was  not  considered  by  him  beneath  his  notice. 

Much  to  my  personal  sorrow  he  went  away,  and  New  York 
was  never  the  same  afterward.  I  always  felt  an  impulse  from 
his  personality  which  was  of  service  to  me,  and  perhaps 
through  me  to  others.  When  we  come  to  discuss  men  as  men, 
and  come  to  think  of  them  as  friends,  we  cannot  go  too  far,  our 
feelings  prevent  that.  Rut  we  may  always  think  of  what  was 
so  beautifully  said  many  years  ago: 

"  No  further  seek  his  merits  to  disclose 

Or  draw  his  frailities  from  their  dread  abode; 
(There  they  alike  in  trembling  hope  repose—) 
The  bosom  of  his  Father  and  his  God." 


io  HAMMOND,  THE   PHYSICIAN.  [May 

HAMMOND  THE   PHYSICIAN  AND  NEUROLOGIST. 

BY 

JOSEPH    COLLINS,  M.D. 

*'Fas  est  praeteritas  semper  ainare  viros." 
Our  reverence  is  due  to  those  who  have  passed  on. 

In  speaking  to  the  subject  that  has  been  allotted  me  this 
evening  I  shall  depart  from  the  usual  course  when  a  memorial  is 
consecrated  to  a  dead  worthy  and  avoid  the  tone  of  extravagant 
eulogy  and  exaggeration  of  praise  which  the  truly  great  man 
would  scorn  to  receive.  The  man  in  whose  memory  we  gather 
to-night  was  personally  unknown  to  me,  and  therefore  what  I 
shall  say  concerning  his  attainments  is  based  entirely  upon  a 
study  of  his  written  contributions,  with  many  of  which  I  have 
long  been  very  familiar.  These  contributions  are  astonishingly 
great  in  number,  comprising  no  less  than  sixteen  books  and  one 
hundred  and  twenty- five  articles  to  medical  and  secular  journals, 
a  chronological  list  of  which  is  appended  to  this  memorial. 

Dr.  William  A.  Hammond  succeeded  in  tracing  indelibly 
upon  the  tablets  of  clinical  neurology  a  record  of  his  existence. 
This  is  the  privilege  and  a  result  that  is  vouchsafed  to  few  in 
each  generation.  The  history  of  this  important  branch  of  medi- 
cine cannot  be  written  without  frequent  reference  to  his  name. 
He  rose  by  sheer  force  of  individual  resource  from  the  rank  and 
file  of  the  profession  to  a  position  of  eminence,  and  he  became 
a  giant  figure  in  the  medical,  particularly  in  the  neurological 
world  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

His  scientific  writings  may  be  considered  as  divided  into 
three  periods.  The  first  covers  the  earlier  part  of  his  career, 
before  he  had  entered  actively  into  the  practical  side  of  his  pro- 
fession, and  is  concerned  very  largely  with  questions  of  physio- 
logical chemistry,  a  subject  to  which  his  eager  and  inquiring 
mind  had  been  directed  by  the  publication  of  Liebig's  Letters. 
He  was  then  twenty-seven  years  old,  and  had  served  for  seven 
years  as  Assistant  Surgeon  in  the  United  States  Army.  During 
this  period,  despite  the  lack  of  almost  everything  approaching 
laboratory  facilities,  he  carried  on  a  series  of  experiments  upon 
himself  which  were  later  embodied  in  three  monographs  and 
subsequently  published  in  Philadelphia.  Of  these  the  most  im- 
portant was  "The  Nutritive  Value  and  Physiological  Effects  of 
Albumen,  Starch  and  Gum  When  Singly  and  Exclusively  Used 


i9oo.]  HAMMOND,  THE   PHYSICIAN.  n 

as  Food."  This  essay  was  awarded  the  first  prize  of  the  American 
Medical  Association,  and  did  much  toward  calling  attention  to 
the  author's  name  in  scientific  circles,  both  at  home  and  abroad. 
The  tangible  results  were  more  patently  evident  in  the  call 
which  he  received  soon  afterward  to  the  Professorship  of 
Anatomy  and  Physiology  in  the  University  of  Maryland,  and 
which  he  accepted  in  the  Autumn  of  18C0.  The  contentions  of 
the  essay  relative  to  the  nutritive  value  of  these  foodstuffs,  par- 
ticularly the  albuminoids,  are  practically  in  accord  with  the 
teachings  of  to-day,  half  a  century  later.  At  this  time  he 
exhibited  that  inclination  to  experiment  upon  himself  which 
remained  with  him  to  the  end.  It  is  said  that  no  new  drug  or 
combination  was  discovered  or  offered  to  the  medical  profession 
that  lie  did  not  put  to  the  fullest  personal  test,  despite  the  fact 
that  its  use  might  entail  not  only  immediate  disagreeable  effects, 
but  permanent  injurious  consequences. 

His  attention  was  early  attracted  to  the  fact  that  much  infor- 
mation concerning  metabolism  was  to  be  obtained  from  study  of 
the  excreta,  particularly  the  urine,  both  in  health  and  disease. 
The  results  of  his  investigations  in  this  direction  were  embodied 
in  a  series  of  papers  published  in  the  American  Journal  oj c  Medical 
Sciences,  then  and  for  a  long  time  after  ably  edited  by  Dr.  Isaac 
Hays.  The  most  important  of  these  papers  were  "On  the 
Alterations  Induced  by  Intermittent  Fever  in  the  Physical  and 
Chemical  Qualities  of  the  Urine  and  by  the  Action  of  Disulphate 
of  Ouinin"  and  "  On  Uremic  Intoxications."  Although  the  first 
paper  was  of  no  real  value  in  showing  either  the  pathology  of 
malaria  or  the  rationale  of  the  use  of  quinin,  it  and  another 
paper  on  "  The  Injection  of  Urea  and  Other  Substances  into  the 
Blood"  paved  the  way  to  the  preparation  of  an  article  on  uremic 
intoxication  which  summarized  all  that  was  known  on  the  sub- 
ject at  that  time.  These  articles,  as  well  as  nine  others  on  divers 
chemical  and  physiological  topics,  were  gathered  between  two 
covers  and  published  by  the  Lippincotts  under  the  title  of 
"  Physiological  Memoirs."  They  were  dedicated  to  one  who,  in 
the  language  of  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  is  the  chief 
ornament  to  the  medical  profession  of  America,  that  illustrious 
physician,  the  Dean  of  the  neurological  faculty  of  this  country, 
Dr.  S.  Weir  Mitchell.  Mitchell  indeed  had  collaborated  in  one 
of  the  most  important  papers  of  the  series,  "  Experiments  on 
Corroval  and  Yao,"  two  varieties  of  woorara.     This  subject  had 


12  HAMMOND,  THE    PHYSICIAN.  [May 

previously  engaged  the  attention  of  Claude  Bernard,  whose  work 
evidently  inspired  the  young  Americans.  Without  in  any  way 
instituting  a  comparison,  it  maybe  said  that  Mitchell's  mental 
constitution  was  quite  unlike  that  of  Hammond,  and  that  the 
critical  acumen  of  the  former  was  of  great  service.  This  was 
acknowledged  in  the  dedication,  "To  one  whose  friendship, 
judgment  and  knowledge  I  owe  a  great  portion  of  any  good  it 
may  contain."  Judged  by  the  standards  of  to  day  the  Physio- 
logical Memoirs  do  not  contain  much  of  noteworthy  import- 
ance, but  judged  by  the  standards  of  the  time  when  they  were 
done  and  the  facilities  for  the  performance  of  such  work  they  do 
not  suffer  from  comparison  with  the  best  work  of  the  time. 

This  may  be  taken  as  the  end  of  the  first  period  of  Ham- 
mond's scientific  career.  It  was  concerned  largely  with  a  con- 
sideration of  the  theoretical  and  abstruce,  and  was  in  sharp  con- 
tradistinction to  the  second,  which  in  the  Surgeon  Generalship  of 
the  United  States  Army  was  practical  and  executive.  As  this  sub- 
ject is  considered  this  evening  by  one  capable  of  speaking  from 
the  chair,  as  it  were,  I  shall  say  but  a  few  words  of  this  period, 
covering  nearly  three  years. 

Hammond's  most  important  contribution  now  is  his 
Treatise  on  Hygiene,  which  apparently  grew  out  of  a  very 
decided  need  for  such  a  work  on  the  part  of  the  Army  Medical 
Corps.  This  volume  of  600  pages,  concerned  with  a 
subject  which  had  not  engaged  the  author's  attention  to  any 
considerable  extent  previously,  gives  a  fair  example  of  Ham- 
mond's capacity  to  direct  a  gigantic  energy  toward  the  accom- 
plishment of  whatever  was  in  hand  at  the  time.  In  this  volume 
he  took  up  in  great  detail  the  qualifications  and  disqualifications  of 
the  recruit,  the  inherent  and  environmental  conditions  that  might 
affect  him  unfavorably  as  a  soldier,  and  the  construction  and  ap- 
pointments of  military  hospitals.  It  was  his  remarkable  ability 
in  the  latter  work  that  secured  for  him  the  position  of  Surgeon- 
General,  an  unprecedented  honor  for  a  man  of  his  years,  while 
he  was  Medical  Inspector  of  Camps  and  Hospitals 

In  the  following  year  appeared  two  brochures,  one  entitled 
Lectures  on  Venereal  Diseases,  a  subject  to  which  it  is  fair  to 
surmise  his  attention  was  directed  by  his  intimate  association 
with  recruits  and  regulars  in  camp  and  hospital  life.  The  second 
was  a  volume  of  essays  on  Military,  Medical  and  Surgical  Topics, 
prepared  for  the  United  States  Sanitary  Commission.  With  these 


igco.J  HAMMOND.    THE  PHYSICIAN.  13 

and  other  minor  articles  the  second  stage  in  his  scientific  career 
closed,  for  his  field  of  labor  as  well  as  the  labor  itself  was  here- 
after to  be  almost  entirely  foreign  to  that  of  the  past.  After  his 
dismissal  from  the  army  he  removed  to  New  York,  and  within 
five  years  established  a  reputation  as  a  neurologist  and  within  ten 
years  became  one  of  the  foremost  if  not  the  foremost  specialist 
in  this  difficult  branch  of  internal  medicine  in  the  country  and 
the  author  of  the  most  widely  read  book  upon  the  subject  in  any 
country.  This  was  really  a  most  remarkable  feat.  Misfortune 
and  disaster  which  would  dishearten  others  only  stimulated  him 
to  new  courage  and  endeavor.  At  the  present  day  it  is  generally 
admitted  that  but  few  of  the  specialties  need  more  preparation 
and  training  than  does  ihat  of  neurology.  Yet  here  was  a  man 
whose  work,  so  far  as  can  be  judged  from  perusal  of  the  records 
of  it,  had  little  if  anything  in  it  bearing  on  the  physiology  or 
pathology  of  the  nervous  system.  If  he  had  gone  in  tor  surgery 
or  some  of  its  subdivisions  it  would  have  seemed  very  natural. 
The  explanation  is  to  be  found  in  the  trend  of  his  mind  and 
thought,  which  was  for  the  abstruce,  the  speculative  and  the 
experimental,  associated  with  great  executive  skill  and  a  just 
attention  to  all  of  the  details  of  the  task  in  hand.  In  those  days 
the  pathology  of  nervous  diseases  had  not  yet  begun  to  assume 
the  importance  which  soon  became  attached  to  it.  Many  of  the 
affections  of  the  nervous  system  were  being  described  for  the 
first  time,  and  were  not  generally  recognized,  while  others  were 
awaiting  recognition.  To  the  dissemination  of  such  knowledge 
and  to  the  detection  of  new  nervous  diseases,  Hammond  brought 
an  uncommon  literary  capacity,  a  rare  power  of  narrative,  and, 
more  important  than  all,  an  intuitive  clinical  insight,  coupled 
with  a  capacity  for  detail,  all  united  with  colossal  physical 
strength  and  tireless  mental  activity,  which  made  his  progress 
toward  material  prosperity  and  fame  absolutely  irresistible. 
Much  might  be  said  of  other  qualities  that  made  his  fortune  and 
reputation  were  I  considering  this  phase  of  his  career. 

Soon  after  arrival  in  New  York  his  literary  activity  began  to 
show  itself  bycontributions  to  medical  journalsandby  thepublica- 
tion  of  brochures.  One  of  his  first  essays  was  on  sleepand  insomnia. 
This  was  soon  elaborated  into  a  monograph,  and  finally  took  a 
permanent  place  in  the  literature  as  a  part  of  his  treatise  on 
Insanity.  Soon  afterward  he  became  interested  in  editorial 
work,  and   for  five  years,  beginning  with   1867,  he  edited   the 


i4  HAMMOND,  THE   PHYSICIAN.  [May 

Quarterly  Journal  of  Psychological  Medicine  and  Medical  Jurispru- 
dence. During  a  part  of  this  time,  namely,  from  1867  to  1869,  he 
was  the  editor  of  the  New  York  Medical  Journal.  The  subject  of 
insanity  attracted  his  attention  early,  particularly  the  medico- 
legal aspects  of  it,  and  was  followed  by  the  publication  of  several 
papers  on  this  subject.  Some  of  these  involved  him  in  contro- 
versies, which  were  carried  on  with  not  a  little  acrimony,  not  to 
speak  of  amnesia  of  amenities  on  both  sides,  which  happily  is 
rarely  if  ever  witnessed  to-day.  But  he  was  a  man  not  blown 
about  with  every  wind  of  criticism,  and  did  not  abate  a  jot  his 
interest  in  this  direction.  His  inclination  toward  the  occult  and 
mysterious  in  medicine  was  stimulated  about  this  time  by  an 
epidemic  of  Spiritualism  somewhat  more  virulent  in  type  than 
the  one  through  which  we  are  now  passing,  and  the  result  was 
an  article  on  the  subject  in  the  North  American  Review,  a  maga- 
zine to  which  Hammond  was  an  occasional  contributor  all  his 
life.  Out  of  this  article  grew  his  large  book  on  the  subject, 
published  some  years  later,  in  which  not  alone  Spiritualism  was 
discussed,  but  less  pernicious  emotional  insanities.  This  study 
helped  to  popularize  Hammond's  name  with  the  laity,  and 
brought  him  not  a  little  deserved  praise  as  well  as  the  enmity  of 
a  few  spiritualistic  victims. 

Here  it  may  be  well  to  allude  to  his  favorite  method  of 
making  books,  as  it  is  so  well  exemplified  by  this  volume  on 
Spiritualism.  Practically  all  of  his  scientific  works,  except 
perhaps  his  Treatise  on  Nervous  Diseases,  had  their  begin- 
nings in  articles  contributed  to  one  of  the  magazines.  After 
a  time,  part  of  which  was  undoubtedly  spent  in  storing  his 
mind  and  notebook  with  facts  bearing  on  the  subject,  he  would 
turn  to  it  with  freshened  mind  and  renewed  energies,  and  the 
result  was  often  a  searching  treatise  on  the  subject.  His  literary 
fecundity  is  perhaps  a  little  less  astonishing  when  this  is  con- 
sidered. In  the  following  year,  viz  ,  in  187 1,  the  first  edition  of 
his  book  on  nervous  diseases,  which  did  more  to  establish  his 
reputation  as  a  clinical  observer,  teacher  and  practitioner  than 
all  his  other  productions  combined,  appeared.  Although  it  was 
a  complete  treatise  it  was  published  as  the  second  volume  of  a 
Treatise  on  the  Physiology  and  Pathology  of  the  Nervous  Sys- 
tem, the  fourth  volume  of  Dr.  Austin  Flint's  System  of  Physiology 
forming  volume  1.  The  first  edition  was  soon  exhausted,  and 
the  succeeding  one  was  put  forth  without  reference  to  the  volume 
on  physiology.     Besides  the  various  translations  of   this  book 


i goo.]  HAMMOND,  THE    PHYSICIAN.  15 

nine  editions  were  demanded  in  this  country  within  25  years,  an 
unprecedented  record.  This  book  was  characterized  mainly  by 
the  lucidness  of  its  clinical  description,  the  thoroughness  with 
which  the  causation  of  the  various  diseases  was  considered,  the 
hopefulness  and  explicitness  of  the  remarks  on  therapy,  and  by 
dogmatic  statements.  It  showed  that  its  writer  had  made  a 
complete  survey  and  digest  of  past  and  contemporaneous  neuro- 
logical literature,  which  had  strained  through  a  mind  capable  of 
separating  the  chaff  from  the  grain.  This  was  contrasted  with 
the  results  of  a  not  inconsiderable  experience,  and  when  the 
former  did  not  tally  with  the  latter,  preference  was  invariably 
given  to  the  results  of  personal  experience,  which  were  stated  in 
a  manner  not  to  be  misunderstood.  In  the  language  of  Shake- 
speare, he  read  much,  he  was  a  great  observer,  and  he  looked 
through  the  deeds  of  other  men. 

The  most  important  contributions  to  the  semiology  of  disease 
was  his  description  of  the  condition  called  by  him  and  now 
universally  known  as  athetosis,  which  he  described  in  such  a 
fashion  that  nothing  has  been  added  by  further  study  and  a  lucid 
preservation  of  convulsive  tic  which  was  afterward  described  by 
German  writers  under  the  name  of  paramydonus  multo  plex.  La- 
ter he  called  attention  to  a  variety  of  tic  known  as  myriachit  oc- 
curring in  certain  parts  ot  Siberia.  This  description  was  based  on 
the  account  of  a  journey  through  Asia  made  by  Lieut.  B.  H.  Buck- 
ingham and  Ensigns  G.  C.  Foulk  and  W.  McLean.  He  recognized 
its  close  kinship  to  the  ''jumpers,"  which  had  been  described  by 
Dr.  Beard,  and  to  Latah,  of  the  Malays.  Aside  from  these,  two 
subjects  which  were  given  a  great  deal  of  space  in  the  book 
require  particular  mention,  for  contemporaries  and  successors 
have  failed  to  put  the  hall-mark  of  acceptation  upon  them, 
although  Hammond  strove  valiantly  and  persistently,  even  to 
the  day  of  his  death,  for  their  recognition  as  clinical  entities. 
These  subjects  were  posterior  spinal  anemia,  which  he  taught 
was  the  anatomical  basis  of  what  was  then  and  is  yet  sometimes 
called  spinal  irritation,  and  cerebral  hyperemia,  which  he  taught 
was  the  morbid  dependency  of  what  we  now  call  neurasthenia. 
Beard,  whose  labors  in  the  field  of  neurasthenia  finally  resulted 
'  to  his  eternal  renown  after  "the  Master  of  all  good  Workmen 
had  put  him  to  work  anew,"  resolutely  opposed  his  views.  Time 
has  shown  that  Beard  was  right,  and  for  his  labors  as  well  as  for 
his  faith  American  neurologists  might  well  canonize  him.  In 
the  years  immediately  succeeding  the  publication  of  his  book 


16  HAMMOND,  THE    PHYSICIAN.  [May 

he  was  extremely  busy  in  the  practice  of  his  profession,  in  the 
preparation  of  new  editions,  each  one  of  which  was  completely 
remodeled  to  keep  abreast  with  the  .science  that  no  longer  crept, 
but  walked  and  often  ran,  and  embodying-  his  individual  and  now 
truly  large  experience.  Despite  this,  he  found  time  to  edit  the 
Journal  of  Nervous  and  Mental  Diseases,  to  write  many  articles, 
clinical  lectures  and  essays,  some  of  which  were  afterward  pub- 
lished under  the  heading  of  neurological  contributions,  and  to 
prepare  his  Treatise  on  Insanity,  which  was  published  in  1883. 
Although  this  book  did  not  have  the  material  success  of  its 
illustrious  predecessor,  it  nevertheless  received  the  warmest 
commendation  from  contemporary  neurologists  and  added  to  its 
author's  scientific  reputation.  A  short  time  preceding  its  pub- 
lication he  had  made  serious  charges  against  the  prevalent 
methods  of  treating  the  insane  in  the  asylums  of  this  country, 
which  everyone  now  knows  were  founded  in  fact.  This  secured 
for  him  the  enmity  of  a  class  of  politicians  known  as  asylum 
superintendents,  for  at  that  time  they  were  politicians, with  a  few 
illustrious  exceptions  who  succeeded  in  making  hospitals  out  of 
barbarous  asylums  and  to  whom  American  psychiatry  owes  its 
reputation  as  a  pioneer  in  the  modern  and  rational  method  of 
the  treatment  of  the  insane.  This  enmity  served  a  beneficial 
purpose,  for  it  gave  publicity  to  the  charge  of  abuses,  which  was 
tantamount,  as  it  always  is,  to  a  reformation.  Unfortunately,  it 
resulted  in  an  unfortunate  controversy  with  one  Grissom,  which 
was  waged  in  most  slanderous  language,  and  the  records  of 
which  we  could  well  wish  were  destroyed. 

In  the  same  year  there  appeared  hisvolumeon  Sexual  Impo- 
tence in  the  Male,  which  was  thrice  republished  in  this  country, 
and  widely  read  at  home  and  abroad,  judging  from  the  frequent 
quotations  which  one  continually  encounters  when  professional 
exigencies  demand  that  he  sacrifice  himself  to  a  perusal  of  the 
distressing  literature  which  has  sprung  up  around  this  subject, 
especially  in  the  middorsal  region  of  Europe.  These,  with  a 
great  number  and  variety  of  articles  which  are  mentioned  in  the 
register  of  his  writing  appended  to  these  remarks,  constitute  the 
bulk  of  his  work,  in  addition  to  his  teaching  while  in  New 
York.  In  1888,  at  the  height  of  his  professional  fame,  he  relin- 
quished his  practice  here  and  returned  to  Washington,  and,  al- 
though actively  engaged  there  in  professional  work,  he  made 
no  contributions  to  medical  literature  after  that  time  that  en- 
hanced his  scientific  reputation.     It   is  necessary  to  make  some 


igoo.]  HAMMOND,  THE    PHYSICIAN.  17 

mention,  however,  of  the  contributions  that  were  made  during 
this  period.  Deprived  of  his  customary  expounding  of  the  doc- 
trines of  neurology  with  which  this  institution  had  been  favored 
from  the  date  of  its  foundation,  the  zeal  for  experimentation  so 
conspicuous  in  early  life,  seemed  to  again  come  over  him.  About 
this  time  Brown-Sequard  and  some  co-workers  abroad  who 
were  passing  into  a  graceful  senility,  electrified  the  reading 
world  and  filled  with  hope  those  whose  ways  of  life  had  fallen 
into  the  sere  and  yellow  leaf  and  who  dreaded  to  have  that 
which  should  accompany  old  age  come  upon  them,  with  the 
claim  that  rejuvinesence  was  to  be  had  from  partaking  of  the 
juice  expressed  from  the  testes  of  young  animals.  Brown- 
Sequard  was  not  able  to  stop  the  wheels  of  evolution,  though  he 
was  gifted  beyond  the  ordinary,  Nor  did  he  indeed  rival  the 
King  of  the  wise,  Omar  Khayyam,  who 

"  Up  from  earth's  centre  through  the  seventh  gate 
He  rose  and  on  the  throne  of  Saturn  sate. 
And  many  a  knot  unraveled  by  the  road, 
But  not  the  master  knot  of  human  fate." 

Experimental  chemistry  and  physiology  were  revealing 
the  role  of  colossal  importance  which  is  played  in  the  economy 
by  the  internal  secretions,  and  these  revelations  were  being  cor- 
roborated by  experimental  clinical  medicine  and  by  the  science 
of  pathology.  The  wondrous  health-restoring  capacity  of  the 
thyroid  of  the  sheep  in  that  disgusting  and  then  mysterious  dis- 
ease, myxedema,  led  to  the  hope  that  from  other  tissues  there 
might  be  expressed  a  something  that  would  be  curative  to  an 
individual  in  whom  these  organs  or  tissues  were  diseased.  The 
analogy  was  forced,  the  reasoning  was  false.  Of  the  results  of 
such  therapy  we  need  only  be  silent.  Hammond,  however, 
stated  and  reiterated  that  isopathy,  as  the  treatment  by  animal 
extracts  is  called  by  its  advocates,  would  do  more  for  practical 
medicine  and  humanity  than  any  discovery  since  that  which 
immortalized  Jenner.  He  wrote  many  articles  and  addresses 
in  which  this  position  was  stubbornly  maintained,  but  the  re- 
sults from  thorough  rise  of  the  animal  extracts  in  the  hands  of 
others  were  invariably  disappointing.  Ten  years  have  come  and 
gone  since  this  prophecy  was  made  and  there  are  no  signs  of  its 
fulfilment.  Indeed,  when  the  stars  are  consulted  it  is  plainly 
evident  to  the  Fachmann  that  the  horoscope  was  false  and  mis- 
leading.    One  avenue  was  shaded  .to  his  eyes,  through  which  he 


iS  HAMMOND,  THE   PHYSICIAN.  [May 

wandered  searching  for  the  elixir  of  life  or  the  destroyer  of  dis- 
ease, call  it  as  we  may,  and  that  was  the  avenue  that  leads  to 
the  causation  of  the  natural  end  of  Life's  span. 

Before  attempting  to  sum  up  the  subject  of  this  sketch  and 
his  scientific  work,  it  will  not  be  amiss  to  consider  briefly  the 
conditions  under  which  his  work  first  took  substantial  and  en- 
during form.  The  work  must  be  regarded  as  a  whole.  Fair 
judgment  must  consider  scope,  range,  originality  and  daring, 
displayed  both  as  a  pioneer  and  as  a  reformer,  the  force  crea- 
tive and  motive,  the  independence  of  thought  and  action,  fixity 
of  purpose,  self  reliance,  indefatigable  energy,  joined  with  the 
strength  for  sustained  effort,  as  well  as  the  capacity  for  taking 
infinite  pains,  the  directness  of  expression  verging  almost  upon 
bluntness,  and  lastly  as  a  natural  sequence  to  the  sum  of  all,  a  re- 
markable capacity  for  accomplishment.  What  was  it  that  en- 
gendered these?  Was  it  inheritancy,  environment,  or  acquisi- 
tion, that  played  the  leading  part  in  shaping  the  mould  in  which 
the  creations  of  his  mind  were  cast?  That  the  result  proves 
them  to  have  been  cast  in  heroic  mold,  does  not  lessen  interest 
in  the  matter  in  influences,  though  it  is  at  the  same  time  the 
strongest  argument  in  favor  of  that  peculiar  kind  of  mentality 
which  we  call  originality,  the  quality  which  makes  individual 
force  rise  superior  and  distinctive  amid  influences  which  might 
easily  have  been  obstacles.  The  peculiar  isolation  of  Ham- 
mond's early  scientific  work  was  remarkable.  It  was  not  only 
the  isolation  borne  by  intellectual  workers  generally  at  that 
time,  but  the  added  aloofness  of  exile.  The. first  ten  years  were 
spent  in  army  posts  far  from  the  frontier.  This,  as  we  know, 
but  do  not  always  realize,  meant  the-n  not  a  matter  of  so  many 
miles,  but  months  from  civilization.  But  there  was  no  gloomy 
calm  of  idle  vacancy  for  him.  He  set  to  work  with  such  mate- 
rials as  he  could  command  and  experimented  in  the  great  lab 
oratory  of  the  human  body,  and  produced  a  work  which  gave 
him  at  once  a  scientific  standing  and  a  scientific  introduction. 
Moreover,  these  years  stood  for  much  in  the  development  of 
character.  Character  does  not  grow  in  crowded  places.  In  the 
words  of  a  modern  writer:  "  In  great  cities  men  are  more  or  less 
alike.  It  is  in  solitary  abodes  that  strong  natures  grow  up  in 
their  own  way."  And  character  belongs  to  the  work  as  well  as 
to  the  personality  of  the  individual. 


I9oo.j  HAMMOND.   T1IIC    PHYSICIAN.  19 

Who  can  say  that  this  very  isolation  may  not  have  been  one 
of  the  potent  influences  in  the  life-work  so  strongly  marked 
with  distinctive  characteristics.  Who  can  say  that  the  vital 
spontaneity,  daring  originality,  and  absolute  self-reliance  with 
which  stupendous  work  was  conceived  and  carried  through,  had 
not  their  roots  deep  down  in  that  strength-giving  soil  of  soli- 
tude? He  is  great,  says  Emerson,  who  is  what  he  is  from  na- 
ture, and  nature  works  through  environment,  as  well  as  through 
heredity.  Hammond  was  great  from  Nature,  great  in  body  and 
great  in  mind.  He  never  reminds  of  others.  He  came  to  the 
field  of  neurology  when  it  was  as  yet  largely  an- unexplored  ter- 
ritory, tracked  here  and  there  indistinctly  by  daring  pioneers 
and  he  became  a  road  maker,  nearly  if  not  quite  of  the  first 
rank.  His  intellect  came  like  a  sharp  edge  of  light  across  the 
gloom.  He  was  not  a  genius,  unless  genius  is,  as  the  New  Eng- 
land trancendentalist  teaches,  the  capacity  to  believe  your  own 
thought,  to  believe  that  what  is  true  for  you  in  your  private 
heart  is  true  for  all  men  But  he  was  endowed  with  a  some- 
thing that  a  man  can  have  without  having  to  get  a  divorce  from 
genius.  This  something  was  a  tremendous  fund  of  energizing 
power,  coupled  with  resourcefulness  that  enabled  the  possessor 
both  to  adapt  and  to  vitalize  his  intellectual  endowments,  to  en- 
compass his  ambition  to  a  degree  that  is  not  frequently  equalled. 
He  had  that  indomitable  union  of  intellect  and  will  that  carried 
all  before  it,  and  like  other  great  men  he  could  toil  terribly.  He 
united  with  judgment  a  sound  balance,  a  courageous  spirit,  and 
a  mind  of  real  sincerity  and  acumen,  with  a  capacity  of  endur- 
ance which  compelled  the  success  that  attended  his  efforts  and 
for  which  we  gladly  give  him  praise.  His  life  proves  that  few 
things  are  impossible  to  diligence  and  skill. 

"  Nothing  but  pain  and  wretchedness  we  earn  in 
This  world  that  for  a  moment  we  sojourn  in: 
We  go! — no  problem  solved  Alas!  discerning; 
Myriad  regrets  within  our  bosom  burneth." 


.MEDICAL    ARTICLES. 

The  Relations  existing  between  Urea  and  Uric  Acid.  Reprinted  from  Am. 

J.  M.  Sc.  Phila.,  1855. 
Sleep  and  its  Derangements.     J.  B.  Lippincott  &  Co.,  Phila.,  1869. 
The   Physiology   and    Pathology  of   the  Cerebellum.     D.  Appleton  &  Co. 

1869. 


20  HAMMOND,  THE   PHYSICIAN.  [May 

The  Trial  of  McFarland  for  Shooting  Albert  A.  Richardson,  with  a  pre- 
liminary Essay  on  Medical  Jurisprudence.    W.  E.  Hilton,  N.  Y,,  1870. 

The  Medico-Legal  Value  of  Confession,  as  an  Evidence  of  Guilt..  Jour- 
nal of  Psychological  Medicine,  N.  Y.,  1871.,  v.  357-370. 

Review  of  a  Treatise  on  Diseases  of  the  Nervous  System.  Reprinted  from 
the  N.  Y.  Med.  Jour.,  1S71. 

The  Rights  of  Independent  Criticism  and  Suit  for  Libel  against  the  Medi- 
cal Record.     Medical  Record,  N.  Y. ,  1874. 

Spiritualism  and  Allied  Causes  and  Conditions  of  Nervous  Derangement, 
London,  H.  K.  Lewis.     1876. 

On  the  use  of  Opium  in  the  Treatment  of  Hypochondria.  Gaillard's 
Med.  Jour.     N.  Y.,  1877. 

Clinical  Lecture  on  Facial  Paralysis.     Boston  Med.  &*  Surg,  your.,  1878. 

Cerebral  Symptoms  from  Impacted  Cerumen  in  the  Ear.  Medical  Record. 
N.  Y.,  1878. 

Neurological  Contributions. 

Neurological  Contributions.  By  Dr.  W.  A.  Hammond  and  Dr.  W.  J. 
Morton.     Putnam's,  1879. 

A  Case  of  Hysterical  Deception.    Neurological  Contributions,  N.  Y.,  1879. 

Syphilitic  Aphasia.     Neurological  Contributions.     N.  Y.,  1879. 

A  Clinical  Lecture  on  Arrest  of  Development.  Neurological  Contribu- 
butions.     N.  Y.,  1879. 

Mysophobia.     Medical  Record.  N.  Y.,  1879. 

Hepatic  Abscess.     Medical  Record.     N.  Y.,  1879. 

Insane  Asylum  Reform.  The  non-asylum  treatment  of  the  insane.  Re- 
printed from  Tr.  N.  Y.  State  Med.  Soc,  N.  Y.  1879.  Putnam's  Feb.  5, 
1879. 

On  the  use  of  Opium  in  the  Treatment  of  Hypochondria.  Gaillard's 
Med.  Jour.     N.  Y..  1879. 

On  the  Cerebral  Symptoms  produced  by  Impacted  Cerumen.  Hosp.  Gaz. 
N.  Y.,  1879. 

The  Non-asylum  Treatment  of  the  Insane.  Transactions  Med.  Soc.  New 
York.     Published  in  Syracuse,  1879. 

On  the  Treatment  of  Chorea  with  Hypodermic  Injections  of  Arsenic.  St. 
Louis  Clin.  Rec,  1879. 

Neurological  Contributions,  1879. 

Cerebral  Hyperemia,  "  The  Result  of  Mental  Strain  or  Emotional  Dis- 
turbance. G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  1878.  Brentano's,  Washington,  D. 
C,  1895. 

Mysophobia.     Indepcnd.  Pract.     Baltimore,  1880. 

General  Paralysis  of  the  Insane  with  Special  Reference  to  the  Case  of 
Abraham  Gosling.     Gaillard's  Med.  Jour.     N.  Y.,  1880. 

On  Thalamic  Epilepsy.     Arch.  Med.     N.  Y.,  1880. 

On  Obscure  Abscesses  of  the  Liver,  their  Association  with  Hypochondria 
and  their  Treatment.     St.  Louis,  Clin.  Rec.     i88o-8r. 

Thalamic  Epilepsy.     Boston  Med.  &*  Surg.  Jour.     1880. 

The  Effects  of  Alcohol  upon  the  Nervous  System.  Neurological  Contribu- 
tions.    N.  Y.,  1880. 


igoo.]  HAMMOND.  THE    PHYSICIAN.  ai 

On  Myxodema  with  Special  Reference  to  its  Cerebral  and  Nervous  Symp- 
toms.    St.  Louis  Clin.  Rec.     1880. 

The  Construction,  Organization  and  Equipment  of  Hospitals  for  the  In- 
sane.    Neurological  Contributions.     N.  Y.,  1880. 

A  Lecture  on  Sleep.     Gail  lard's  Med.  Jour.     N.  Y.,  1880. 

The  Treatment  of  the  Insane,     Internat.  Review.     N.  Y.  1880. 

A  Case  of  Progressive  Facial  Atrophy  with  Remarks  on  the  Pathology  of 
the  Disease.    Jour.  Nerv.  and  Ment.  Dis.     Chicago,  1880. 

Neuralgia  of  the  Testis.     St.  Louis  Cour.  of  Med.     1881. 

The  same  published  in  Neurological  Contributions.     N.  Y.,  i88r. 

The  Condition  of  the  Arteries  after  Death.  Medical  Record.     N.  Y.,  1881. 

Cerebral  Softening,  a  clinical  lecture.     Med.  Herald.     Louisville,  1881. 

A  Clinical  Lecture  on  the  Treatment  of  Locomotor  Ataxia.  Operation  for 
Elongation  of  the  Sciatic  Nerve  Performed.  Jour.  Nerv.  and  Men. 
Dis.     N.  Y.,  1881. 

Incontinence  of  Urine,  as  a  Preataxic  Sign  of  Locomotor  Ataxia.  New 
Eng.  M.  Month.     Newtown,  Conn.,  1881-1882. 

The  Punishability  of  the  Insane.     Internat.  Review.     N.  Y.,  i83i. 

Cerebral  Softening,     Med.  &*  Surg.  Reporter.     Phila.  188 1. 

Hysterical  Paralysis.     Med.  <S»  Surg.  Reporter.     Phila.,  188 c. 

Bell's  Paralysis.     Med.  &*  Surg.  Reporter.     Phila.,  1881. 

The  Surgical  Treatment  of  President  Garfield.  North  Am,  Rev.  N.  Y. 
1881. 

The  Therapeutical  use  of  the  Magnet.     A^  Y.  Med.  Jour.     1880. 

The  same  published  in  Neurological  Contributions.     N.  Y.,  i83i. 

A  Clinical  Lecture  on  Cerebral  Embolism.  Am.  M.  Bi-  Weekly.  N.  Y. 
1881. 

The  same  published  in  Gaillard's  Med.  Jour.     N.  Y.,  188 1. 

Elongation  of  the  Sciatic  Nerve  in  Locomotor  Ataxia,  four.  Nerv.  and 
Men.  Dis.     N.  Y.,  1881. 

Some  of  the  Therapeutical  uses  of  Nitroglycerine.  Virginia  M.  Monthly. 
Richmond,  1  S3 1 . 

The  Scientific  Relations  of  Modern  Miracles.     Internat.  Rev.   N.  Y.,  1881. 

Certain  Forms  of  Nervous  Derangement.     188 1. 

New  edition  much  altered  with  new  material  added  of  "  Spiritualism  " 
and  other  forms  of  Mental  Derangement.     iS3i. 

Suggestions  for  Improvements  in  the  Management  of  the  Insane  and  of 
Hospitals  for  the  Insane  in  the  State  of  New  York.  Neurological 
Contributions.     1881 

On  Obscure  Abscesses  of  the  liver;  their  association  with  hypochondria 
and  other  forms  of  mental  derangement  and  their  treatment.  Neuro- 
logical Contributions.     1881. 

Morbid  Impulse.  Papers,  Med-Leg.  Soc.  N.  Y.,  1882;  also  published  in 
1874  by  G.  F.  Trow  &  Son. 

Reasoning  Mania;  its  Medical  and  Medico-Legal  Relations;  with  special 
reference  to  the  case  of  Charles  J.  Guiteau.  Jour.  Nerv.  &*  Men.  Dis. 
1882 


22  HAMMOND.  THE   PHYSICIAN.  [May 

The  same,  an  address  before  the  Med. -Leg.  Soc.     New  York,  1882;  also 

published  in  the  Sanitarian,  N.  Y. 
Disease  of  the  Scythians  and  Certain  Analagous  Conditions.     Am.  Jour. 

Neurol.  &°  Psychtat.     N.  Y.,  1882. 
A  Problem  for  Sociologists.     North  Am.  Rev.     N.  Y.,  1882. 
Eccentricity  and  Idiosyncrasy.     N.  Y.  Med.  Jour.     1882. 
On  the   So-called    Family   and   Hereditary   Form  of   Locomotor  Ataxia. 

Jour.  Nerv,  and  Men.  Dis.     N.  Y.,  1882. 
Perceptional  Insanities  (abridged  from  advance  sheets  of  his  forth-coming 

work  on  "Insanity  in  its  Medical  Relations.)  Pop.  Sc.  Monthly.  N.  Y. 

1882-1883. 
Emotional  Morbid  Impulses,  Suicide,  (extract  from  a  forth-coming  "Trea- 
tise on  Insanity  in  its   Medical  Relations.")      New    England  Med. 

Monthly.     Newtown,  Conn.,  1882. 
Hereditary  Tendency.    Jour.  Nerv.  and  Men.  Dis.     N.  Y.,  1882. 
The  Question  of  Lucid  Intervals  in  Insanity.    Jour.  Nerv.  and  Men.  Dis. 

1883, 
The  Treatment  of  Migraine.     N.  Y.  Med.  Jour.     1883. 
A  Treatise  on  Insanity  in  its  Medical  Relations.  Book,  D.  Appleton  &  Co. 

1883. 
Remarks  on  Cases  of  Katatonia.     N.  Y.  Med  Jour.     1883. 
Some  Remarks  on  Sexual  Excesses  in  Adult  Life  as  a  cause  of  Impotence. 

Virginia  M.  Monthly.     Richmond,  1883-84. 
Spasmodic  Stricture  of  the  Urethra  as  a  cause  of  Impotence.  Extract  Med. 

Gazzette.     N.  Y.,  1883. 
Allochiria;  its  Nature  and  Seat.     N.   Y.  Med.  Jour.     1883. 

The  same  published  in  the  Jour.  Nerv.  and  Men.  Dis.      N.  Y.,  1883. 
A  Clinical  Lecture  on  Epilepsy.     N.  Y.  Med.  Jour.     1883. 
A  Case  of  Intellectual  Monomania  with   Mental    Depression.      Am.    J. 

Neurol.  &*  Psychtat.     N.  Y.  1883. 
The  same,  Illustrated  in  M.  &*  S.     N.  Y.,  1883. 

The  Influence  of  Age  upon  the  Mind  and  Body  in  Relation  to  Mental  De- 
rangement,    Alienist  &<>  Neurol.     St.  Louis,  1883. 
On  the  proper  method  of  using  the  Iodide  of  Potassium  in  Syphilis  of  the 

Nervous  System.  New  Eng.  Med.  Monthly.  Sandy  Hook,  Conn.,  1884. 
Miryachit,  a  Newly   Described    Disease   of  the  Nervous  System   and  its 

Analogues.     N.  Y.  Med.  Jour.    Translated  into  French,  published  in 

London  and  Naples.     1884. 

Also  in  the  Esculapian.     N.  Y.,  1884. 

Also  in  the  British  M.  J.     London,  1884. 
The   Relations   between  the    Mind  and  the   Nervous   System.     Popular 

Science  Monthly.     N.  Y.,  1884. 
Unilateral  Hallucinations.     Med.  News.     Phil.,  1885. 

The  same  (abstract)  in  the  Boston  M.  &>  S.  J.     1886. 
Rabies  in   the   Human   Subject.     Quart.    Bull.    Clin.   Soc.     N.  Y.  Post- 

Graduate  Med.  School  and  Hospital.     1885. 
A  Case  of  Convulsive  Tremor  cured  by  Arsenic  Administered  Hypodermi- 

cally  in  large  doses.     Quart.  Bull.   Clin.  Soc.     N.  Y.  Post-Graduate 


i9oo]  HAMMOND,  THE    PHYSICIAN.  23 

Med.  School  and  Hospital.     N.  Y..  1885-86. 

Tetany.     New  Eng.  Med.  Month.     Bridgeport,  Conn.,  1885-86. 

Writer's  Cramp.  Facsimile  of  Three  Attempts  of  a  Victim  of  Writer's 
Cramp  to  Sign  his  Name.     From  Diseases  of  the  Nervous  System. 

Certain   Railway   Injuries   of  the  Spine  in  their   Medico-Legal  Relations. 
Papers,  Med. -Leg.  Soc.  N.  Y  ,  1886. 
Also  in  Jour.  Nat.  Asso.  Railway  Surg.     Fort  Wayne,  Mo.,  1888-90. 

Canned  Tomatoes  and  Chloride  of  Lime.     Ar.   Y.  Med.  Jour.     1886. 

Thomson's  Disease.     Gaillard's  Med.  Jour.     N.  Y.,  1886. 

Glonoin  in  Migraine  or  Sick  Headache.     Med.  Brief.     St.  Louis,  1886. 

Thalamic   Fpilepsy.      Vir.  Med.  Monthly.     1S86-S7. 

Abnormal  Condition  of  Uncertainty.     N.   Y.Med.  Jour.     1886. 

Athetosis,  its  Treatment  and  Pathology.  Jour.  Nerv.  and  Men.  Dis. 
N.  Y.,  1886. 

Remarks  on  Cocain    and    the  so-called  Cocain    Habit.      Jour.  Nerv.  and 
Men.  Dis.     N.  Y.,  1886. 
Also  in  A".   Y.Med.  Jour.     1886. 

Brain  Forcing  in  Childhood.     Popular  Science  Monthly.     1886. 

Insanity  of   .Malarial  Origin,     (case)   Quart.  Bull.  Clin.    Soc.     N.   Y.  Post- 
Graduate  Med.  School  and  Hospital.     1886. 
Also  in  Neurological  Contributions.     1886. 

Mysterious  Disappearances  (Double  or  Alternate  Consciousness)  Cutting 
from  the  Forum.     1887. 

The  Medico-Legal  Relations  of  Hypnotism  or  Syggignoscism.  N.  Y. 
Med.  Jour.     1887. 

Coca,  its  Preparation  and  their  Therapeutical   Qualities  with  some  Re- 
marks  on    the   so-called   Cocain    Habit.       Read    before   the    Medical 
Society  of  Virginia.  Oct.  20th.  1887. 
Also  published  in  the  Vir.  Med  Month.     Richmond,  18S7-88. 

A  Clinical  Lecture  on  the  Differential  Diagnosis  of  Antero-lateral  Sclerosis 
and  Posterior  Sclerosis  of  the  Spinal  Cord.  Jour.  Nerv.  and  Men. 
Dis.     N.  Y..  1888. 

Madness  and  Murder.     North  Am.  Rev.     N.  Y.,  1888. 

The  Treatment  of  Locomotor  Ataxia  and  other  Diseases  of  the  Nervous 
System  by  Suspension.     N.   Y.Med.  Jour.     1889. 

The  Elixir  of  Life.     North  Am.  Rev      N.  Y.,  iSSq. 

Sexual  Impotence  of  Man  and  Woman.  St.  Petersburg,  translated  into  Rus- 
sian      1889. 

Experiments  Relative  to  the  Therapeutical  Value  of  Expressed  Juice  of 
the  Testicles  when  Hypodermically  introduced  into  the  Human  Sys- 
tem.    N.  Y.  Med.  Jour.     1889. 

False  Hydrophobia.     North  Am.  Rev.  N.  Y.,  1890. 

Weak  Heart  and  its  Treatment.      Therap.  Gas.     Detroit,  1890. 

A  Case  of  Brain  Surgery  and  its  Relations  to  Cerebral  Localization.  .V. 
Y.  Med.  Jour.     1890. 

Can  We  Diagnosticate  Hyperemia  or  Anemia  of  the  Brain  and  Cord.  Vir. 
Med.  Monthly.     Richmond,  189-91. 


24  HAMMOND,  THE   PHYSICIAN.  [May 

A  New  Substitute  for  Capital  Punishment  and  Means  for  Preventing  the 
Propagation  of  Criminals.     N.  Y.  Med.  Exam.     ]8qi. 

Seven  Recent  Cases  of  Brain  Surgery.     Med.  News.     Phil.,  1891. 

How  to  Rest.     North.  Am.  Rev.     1891. 

Hebephrenia, Mental  Derangement  of  Puberty.  Vir.  Med.  Monthly.  Rich- 
mond, 1892-93. 

On  Certain  Organic  Extracts;  their  Preparation  and  Physiological  and 
Therapeutical  Effects      N.  Y.  Med.  Jour.     1893. 

Mr.  Ernest  Hart  and  the  American  Medical  Profession.  N.  Y.  Med.  Jour. 
1893. 

The  ^phygmograph  as  an  Instrument  of  Precision.  NY.  Med.  Jour.   1893. 

On  Certain  Animal  Extracts,  their  mode  of  preparation  and  physiological 
and  therapeutical  effects.     Med.  Jour.     Toronto,  1892-93. 

On  Certain  Animal  Extracts,  their  mode  of  preparation  and  therapeutical 
effects.     A  lecture  delivered  at  the  New  York  Post-Graduate  Medical 
School  and  Hospital.     Jan.  16,  1893.  (typewritten  copy). 
Also  published  in  the  N.   Y.  Med.  Jour.     1893. 
Also  published  in  the  Post-Graduate  Med.  Jour. 

A  Further  Contribution  to  the  Subject  of  "Animal  Extracts."  N.  Y. 
Med.  Jour.     1 893. 

Cardine,  the  Extract  of  the  Heart.  Its  Preparation  and  Physiological  and 
Therapeutical  Effects.     N.   Y.Med.  Jour.     1893. 

The  Fetichism  of  Antisepsis.     Am.  Med.  Surg.  Bull.     N.  Y.,  1894. 

"What  should  a  Doctor  be  Paid.     North  Am.  Rev.     1894. 

A  Few  Practical  Remarks  on  some  of  the  so-called  Reflex  Diseases  of  the 
Nervous  System,  Peculiar  to  Women.  Am.  Jour.  Surg.  &*  Gynec. 
Wellston,  Mo.,  1895-96. 

Animal  Therapeutics  in  the  Treatment  of  Cerebral  Hyperemia.  Char- 
lotte,   N.  C.  Med.  Jour.     1896. 

A    LIST    OF    MEDICAL    WORKS    OF    DR.    WILLIAM    A.    HAMMOND. 

The  Physiological  Effects  of  Alcohol  and  Tobacco  upon  the  Human 
System.     Reprinted  from  Am.  Jour.  Med  Sc.     Philadelphia,  1856. 

Experimental  Researches  Relative  to  the  Nutritive  Value  and  Physiologi- 
ical  Effects  of  Albumen,  Starch  and  Gum  when  Singly  and  Exclusively 
used  as  a  Food.  Being  the  prize  essay  of  the  American  Medical  Asso- 
ciation for  1857.     T.  K.  &P.  G.  Collins.  Phila. 

On  the  Action  of  CertainVegetable  Diuretics.  Reprinted  from  Proc.  Acad. 
Nat.  Sc.     Phil.,  1858. 

On  the  Alterations  Induced  by  Intermittent  Fever  in  the  Physical  and 
Chemical  Qualities  o£  the  Urine  and  on  the  Action  of  the  Disulphate 
of  Quinin.     Reprinted  from  Am.  Jour.  Med.  Sc.     Phil.  1858. 

On  the  Injection  of  Urea  and  other  Substances  into  the  blood.  Reprinted 
from  N.  Am.  Med.  Chir.   Rev.     1858. 

On  Uremic  Intoxication.     Reprinted  from  Am.  Jour.  Med.  Sc    Phil.,  1861. 

A  Treatise  on  Hygiene  with  Special  Reference  to  the  Military  Service. 
J.  B.  Lippincott  &  Co.,  Phila.,  1863. 

Physiological  Memoirs.     J.  B.  Lippincott  &  Co.,  Phila.,  1863. 


igoo.]  HAMMOND,  THE    PHYSICIAN.  25 

Lectures  on  Venereal  Diseases.     J.  B.  Lippincott  &  Co.,  Phila.,  1864. 
Military,    Medical   and    Surgical    Bssays   Prepared   for   the    United    States 

Sanitary  Commission,     J,  B.  Lippincott  &  Co.,  l'hila.,  1864. 
A  Statement  of  the  Causes  which  led   to  the  Dismissal  of  Surj^eon-Ceneral 

William  A.  Hammond  from  the  army;  with  a  Review  of  the  Evidence 

Adduced  before  the  Court.     X.  Y.,  1864. 
On  Sleep   and  Insomnia.     Reprinted    from  the  .V.     J  .  Med.  Jour.     X.  Y., 

1S65. 
Insanity  in  its  Medico-Legal  Relation.    <  >pinion  Relative  to  the  Testamen- 
tary Capacity  of   the    late  James  C.  Johnston.     Baker  Voorhis  &  Co., 

N.  Y.,  1866. 
On  Wakefulness.      With  an  Introductory  Chapter  on  the  Physiology  of 

Sleep.     J.  B.  Lippincott  &  Co.,  Phila.,  1866. 
The  Physiology  and  Pathology  of  the  Cerebellum.     D.  Appleton  &  Co., 

X.  Y..  1869.     Reprinted   from   the    Quart.  Jour.  Psych.  Med.     N.  Y., 

1869. 
A  Medico-legal  Study  of  the  Case  of  Daniel   McFarland.     D.  Appleton  & 

Co.,  N.  \r.,  1870. 
Spinal  Irritation.     D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  N.  Y.,  1870.     Reprinted  iromjour. 

Psych.  Med.     N.  Y.,  1870. 
The   Physics  and  Physiology  of  Spiritualism.     D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  N.  Y. 

1871. 
A  Treatise  on  Diseases  of  the  Nervous  System.     D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  N. 

Y.,  1871. 
Medico-legal  Points  in  the  Case  of  David  Montgomery.     1871. 
Papers,  Med.  Leg.  Soc,  N.  Y.  1882. 
Insanity  in  its   Relations  to   Crime.     A   Text   and   a  Commentary.     D. 

Appleton  &  Co.,  N.  Y.,  1873- 
Climcal  Lectures  on  Diseases  of  the  Nervous  System.   Reprinted,  edited 

and  the  histories  of  the  cases  prepared  with  notes  by  T.  B.  M.  Cross. 

D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  N.  Y.,  1874. 
On  the  Cause   of  Vice-Fresident  Wilson's  Death.     Cambridge,  Riverside 

Press.     Reprinted  from  the  Boston  Med.  and  Surg.  Jour.     1875. 
On  Pigmentary  Deposits  in  the  Brain  Resulting  from  Malarial  Poisoning. 

S.   W.    Green,  X.   Y.,  1875.     Reprinted  from    Tr.  Am.    Neurol.    Soc. 

N.  Y.,  1875- 
Spinal  Irritation,  its  pathology  and  treatment.     G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  N. 

Y.,   1876. 
A  Treatise  on  Diseases  of  the  Nervous  System,  with  109  Illustrations.     D. 

Appleton  &  Co.,  N.  Y.,  1876 
Neurological  Contributions.     I.  The  Odor  of  the  Human  Body  as  Devel- 
oped by  Certain  Affections  of  the  Nervous  System.     II.  On  a  Hitherto 

Undescribed   Form  of   Muscular    Inco-ordination.      G.    P.    Putnam's 

Sons,  1877.     Reprinted  from  Tr.  Am.  Neurol.  Ass.     N.  Y. 
Cerebral  Hyperemia.     G.   P.  Putnam's  Sons.     N.    Y.,  1878.     Second  edi- 
tion, enlarged  and   improved,  published    by    Brentano's,  Washington, 

D.  C.  iSgs. 


26  HAMMOND,  THE    PHYSICIAN.  |May 

An  Open  Letter  to  Eugene  Grissom.  Trow  Print.  Co.,  N.  Y..  1878.  The 
same,  second  edition  with  a  Preface  and  a  Postscript.     N.  Y.,  1878. 

A  Second  Open  Letter  to  Dr.  Eugene  Grissom.  Trows  Print.  Co.,  N.  Y.t 
1878. 

Fasting  Girls;  their  Physiology  and  Pathology.  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  N. 
Y.,  1879. 

Insane  Asylum  Reforms.  I.  The  Non-asylum  Treatment  of  the  Insane. 
G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  N.  Y.,  1879.  Reprinted  from  Tr.  M.  Soc. 
Syracuse,  N.  Y. ,  1879. 

To  the  Medical  Profession,  Jan.  15,  1879.  (Being  the  third  communica- 
tion in  his  controversy  with  Eugene  Grissom.)  The  same.  Relative  to 
the  Address  of  E.  Grissom  delivered  in  Washington),  May,  1878. 

A  Treatise  on  Diseases  of  the  Nervous  System.  Seventh  edition,  rewrit- 
ten, enlarged  and  improved.     D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  N.  Y.,  i88r. 

A  Treatise  on  Insanity  in  its  Medical  Relations.  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  N. 
Y.,  1883. 

Sexual  Impotence  in  the  Male.  J.  R.  Bermingham  &  Co.,  1883.  Pub- 
lished also  in  1886  by  J.  R.  Bermingham  &  Co.  Published  also  by 
Wm.  M.  Warren,  Detroit.  Medical  Publisher. 

The  Official  Correspondence  between  Surgeon-General  William  A.  Ham- 
mond, U.  S.  A  ,  and  the  Adjutant-General  of  the  Army,  Relative  to 
the  Founding  of  the  Army  Medical  Museum  and  the  Inauguration  of 
the  Medical  and  Surgical  History  of  the  War.  D.  Appleton  &  Co. , 
N.  Y.,  1883. 

Spinal  Irritation,  (Posterior  Spinal  Anemia)  G.  S.  Davis,  Detroit,  1886. 

A  Treatise  on  Diseases  of  the  Nervous  System.  Eighth  edition  with  cor- 
rections and  additions.     D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  N.  Y.,  1886. 

Tales  of  Eccentric  Life.     D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  N.  Y.,  1886. 

Sexual  Impotence  in  the  Male  and  Female.     G.  S.  Davis,  Detroit,  1887. 

A   Treatise  on   Diseases  of  the   Nervous  System.     Ninth   edition  by  Wil- 
liam A.  Hammond  and  G.  M.  Hammond.     D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  N.  Y., 
1891. 
WRITTEN    IN    CONJUNCTION    WITH    DR.    S.     WEIR    MITCHELL. 

Experimental  Researches  Relative  to  Corroval  and  Vao,  two  new  Varie- 
ties of  Woorara,  the  South  American  Arrow  Poison.  Reprinted  from 
Am.  Jour.  Med.  Sc.     Phil.,  1849. 

EDITOR    OF 

The  Quarterly  Journal  of  Psychological  Medicine  and  Medical  Jurispru- 
dence.    N.  Y.,  1867-1872. 

The  Psychological  and  Medico-legal  Journal  oj  N.  Y.     1874-1876. 

Neurological  Contributions.     N.  Y.,  1 879-1881. 

Co-editor  of  The  Maryland  and  Virginia  Medical  Journal.     1861. 

The  New  York  Medical  Journal .     1 867-1 869. 

The  Journal  of  Nervous  and  Mental  Diseases.  Chicago  and  New  York, 
1876-1883. 

See  also  United  States  Sanitary  Commission  publications.  Report  of  a 
Committee  of  the  associate  members  of  the— On  the  subject  of 
scurvy.     Washington,  D.  C,  1863. 


I  goo. 


HAMMOND.  THE   TEACHER.  27 


Dr.  Hammond's  Trans,  from  the  German.  Meyer's  "  Electricity  in  its 
Relations  to  Practical  Medicine."    N.  Y.,  1869. 

BIOGRAPHY. 
See  Medical  and  Surgical  Reporter.     S.  W.  Francis,  Phila.,  1867. 
New  England  Medical  Monthly.     Sandy  Hook.  Conn.,  1883-84. 

TRANSLATIONS. 

De  l'epilepsie  Thalamique.     Am.  df    Psychial.  et  d'  Hypnol.    Paris,  1894. 
De  1'  Organization   du  Service  Medical   dans  1'Armee   Americaine.     Arch. 

Gen.  de  Med.     Paris,  1865. 
Miryachit.     Nouvelle  Maladie  du  Systeme  Nerveaux.     (Trans,  from  Med. 

Contemp.  Naples.)  Union  Med.  Paris,  1884. 
L'Odore  del  corpo  umano  in  Alcune  Malattie  del  Sistema  Nervoso.     Giov. 

Internaz.  d.  Sc.  Med.  Napoli.  1883. 
Biografia   del    Prof.  Guglielmo   Allessandro   Hammond.     Dr.  A.  Rubino. 

Naples.     1884. 
Sexuelle  Impotenz  beim  Manne  u  Weibl  Geschlechte  Deutsch,  von  L.  Sal- 
inger, Berlin,  1889. 
L'impuissance   sexuelle  chez   l'homme  et  la   femme.     Lecrosnier   &  Babe. 

Paris.     1890. 
Manuale  Clinico  Terapeutics  sulla  Impotenza  Sessuale  nell'nomo.     Riduz- 

ione  fall  Inglese  del  Dottor  A.  Rubino.     Naples,  1884. 
De  la  Paralysie  du  Bras  chez  les  Nouveau  Nes.     Paris  Med.,  i88r. 

WRITTEN    ABOUT    DR.    HAMMOND. 

United  States  Congress  Senate  Report  1.  To  accompany  bill  5607  for  the 
relief  of  Dr. William  A.  Hammond,  late  Surgeon-General  of  the  Army, 
45th   Congress,  2nd   session,  submitted  by   Mr.  Spencer,  Feb.  19,  1878. 

Reviews  of  the  Statement  of  the  late  Surgeon-General  of  the  United 
States.     Reprinted  lrom  the  Boston  Med.  &=  Surg.  Jour.     1864. 


HAMMOND,  THE    TEACHER. 

HY 

DR.  CHARLES    L.    DANA. 

"It  is  not  wisdom  alone.  Oh,  Aspasia,  but  the  way  in  which  it  is 
imparted,  that  affects  the  soul  and  constitutes  true  eloquence." 

The  words  of  Pericles  apply  with  particular  force  to  those 
who  devote  themselves  to  the  art  of  teaching.  They  especially 
must  have  the  skill  to  present  knowledge  in  such  a  way  that  the 
student  not  only  understands,  but  is  interested,  and  is  filled  with 
zeal  and  zest  to  pursue  further  his  subject. 

Dr.  Hammond  had  this  faculty  above  most  men.  He  was  a 
teacher   incidentally,  and   this  was   not  the   field  in  which  he 


28  HAMMOND,  THE  TEACHER.  [May 

sought  and  found  his  greatest  triumphs.  But  he  had  the  talent 
and  the  love  for  it,  and  in  the  broadest  sense  he  was  a  teacher  all 
his  life.  He  was  made  Professor  of  Anatomy  and  Physiology  in 
the  University  of  Maryland  in  i860  when  he  was  only  32.  He 
lectured  in  the  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons  in  1866,  and 
he  became  Professor  in  Bellevue  Hospital  Medical  College  in 
1867  when  he  was  39.  He  taught  there  for  six  years,  in  the 
University  Medical  College  for  nine  years  more,  1873-82.  He 
lectured  also  at  the  University  of  Vermont,  and  finally  taught  in 
the  Post-Graduate  School  from  1882  till  he  left  for  Washington. 
Thus  he  was  lecturing  and  teaching  almost  continuously  for  26 
years.  I  remember  very  well  the  first  time  that  I  ever  heard 
him  deliver  a  lecture.  He  was  then  a  professor  in  the  University 
Medical  College.  He  lectured  that  day  on  the  subject  of  epilepsy. 
Most  of  us,  when  we  are  dealing  with  this  subject,  feel  that  it 
would  be  an  appreciation  on  the  part  of  Providence  if  the 
patient  beside  us  would  drop  into  some  expressive  spasm,  so  as  to 
help  us  out  pictorially  in  the  description  of  the  disease.  With 
Dr.  Hammond  this  rarely  attained  incident  was  not  necessary. 
I  remember  to  this  day  his  vivid  description  of  the  series  of 
events  that  form  an  epileptic  convulsion.  He  gave  it  with 
every  detail  clinically  correct  and  artfully  and  convincingly  por- 
trayed. I  recall  also  his  description  of  the  treatment  of  the  dis- 
ease, which  he  illustrated  with  a  story,  enforcing  the  now  well 
recognized  importance  of  attending  to  the  diet  and  to  the  condi- 
tions of  fermentation  in  the  intestine,  and  he  ended  with  pre- 
scribing the  famous  black  mixture,  whose  inky  trail  has  followed 
the  wake  of  neurological  therapeutics  in  New  York  ever  since. 
Of  the  adjutants  to  the  use  of  bromid  in  epilepsy,  pepsin  is  one 
of  the  best,  and  it  was  this  fact  that  Dr.  Hammond  had  the  merit 
to  show  three  decades  ago. 

The  next  time  I  heard  Professor  Hammond  he  was  more 
modestly  located  in  one  of  the  rear  rooms  of  a  former  tenement 
house  on  East  Twenty-third  street,  now  consecrated  to  the  use 
of  a  grocer's  hall,  but  then  the  little  acorn  out  of  which  the 
present  oak  of  the  Post-Graduate  has  grown.  At  that  time  the 
maximum  audience  was  not  more  than  six,  and  the  neurological 
clinic  was  largely  dependent  upon  the  man  with  the  "wrist-drop" 
who  attended  the  front  door.  But  Professor  Hammond  lectured 
with  the  same  force  and  interest  and  apparent  personal  enjoy- 
ment that  he  had  when   he   stood   before    the  hundreds  who 


igoo.]  HAMMOND,  THE  TEACHER.  29 

applauded  him  in  the  university  on  Twenty-sixth  street.  His 
lecture  at  that  time  was  on  convulsive  tremor,  and  the  patient  in 
this  case  had  happily  gotten  into  a  state  of  real  pathological 
agitation  for  the  benefit  of  the  class.  The  lecturer  described  this 
disease,  which  it  was  his  honor  to  be  the  first  to  observe  and  give 
to  neurology,  but  which  was  later  re-discovered  in  Germany, 
adorned  with  the  ear-marks  of  a  modern  neurological  "status," 
and  imported  to  America  under  the  name  of  Paramyoclonus 
Multiplex. 

Dr.  Hammond's  popularity  as  a  teacher  was  due  to  the  sin- 
cerity and  directness  of  his  language,  his  clearness  of  thought 
and  his  evident  mastery  of  the  subject  which  he  presented.  He 
did  not  dogmatize  or  theorize  in  any  undue  sense,  but  he  had 
certain  facts  which  he  knew  and  certain  views  which  he  be- 
lieved. These  he  stated  logically  and  convincingly.  He  was 
not  at  all  ashamed  to  confess  ignorance  or  to  admit  therapeutic 
helplessness.  He  had  no  therapeutical  fads  or  obsessions  in  the 
domain  of  pathology.  He  did  not  win  his  audience  because  he 
had  any  exclusive  method  of  interpreting  disease,  or  any  favor- 
ite system  of  treatment,  or  any  peculiar  pathological  hypothe- 
sis, or  any  pet  disease  which  he  loved  forever  to  exploit.  He 
was  not  the  exponent  of  any  cult;  he  won  his  listeners  by  his 
power  of  telling  things  consecutively  and  well;  by  his  apt  illus- 
tration and  his  skill  in  narrative.  There  was  something  always 
essentially  interesting  and  attractive  in  his  manner,  no  matter 
what  the  topic  was  which  he  brought  up.  I  have  heard  him  dis- 
cuss and  argue  upon  subjects  of  all  kinds  and  I  never  knew  him 
to  be  dull  and  never  knew  him  to  talk  without  saying  something 
which  was  fresh,  suggestive  and  instructive. 

The  didactic  lecture  will  always  survive  in  a  degree  as  long 
as  there  are  teachers  who  can  talk  as  he  did  and  who  have,  as  he 
had,  great  stores  of  learning  from  which  to  draw.  They  are 
those  who  "impart  wisdom  in  such  a  way  that  it  affects  the  soul." 
The  words  of  the  text  book  and  the  questions  of  the  quiz  master 
are  necessary,  for  they  grind  out  the  raw  material;  but  it  needs 
the  quickening  words  of  a  true  teacher  to  help  it  to  life.  These 
words  are  like  the  emphasis  upon  the  notes  which  makes  the 
levers  of  the  piano  strike  out  real  music. 

Dr.  Hammond  represented  also  the  modern  type  of  didactic 
teacher  which  came  in  perhaps  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  and 
was  a  type  that  was  very  much   needed.     Teaching  neurology 


3o  HAMMOND,  THE  TEACHER.  [May 

to  medical  students  in  those  times  consisted  measureably  in  tell- 
ing that  of  which  we  knew  little  to  those  who  could  not  possibly 
know  anything.  Neurology  was  unripe,  but  the  medical  stu- 
dent was  still  more  so.  A  new  style  of  instruction  was  needed. 
Dr.  Hammond  had  none  of  the  rounded  periods  of  Sir  Thomas 
Watson,  or  the  familiar  lecturers  of  early  days,  who  spoke  in 
the  language  of  the  forum,  whose  lectures  were  works  of  rheto- 
rical art  and  who  aimed  to  be  witty,  eloquent  and  interesting 
as  orators  and  reconteurs  The  modern  lecturer  has  a  story  to 
tell,  and  certain  facts  to  present;  he  has  to  show  the  student 
what  things  are  true  and  what  are  false,  to  give  him  a  proper 
perspective  and  turn  his  enthusiasms  in  the  right  path.  I  do 
not  know  of  anyone  who  did  this  more  effectively  for  his  time 
and  generation  than  did  Dr.  Hammond.  His  teachings  thirty 
years  ago  presented  neurology  correctly  to  a  vast  number  of 
American  students.  His  text  book  at  that  time  was  a  vivid  and 
correct  teaching  of  neurology  as  it  was  then  known.  He 
at  once  gave  to  the  American  physicians  an  opportunity  to  put 
themselves  abreast  of  those  of  Germany  and  France  and  to  put 
themselves  much  ahead  of  those  of  England  in  this  special 
branch.  I  do  not  know  of  any  special  department  of  medicine 
which  was  so  fortunate.  It  gave  the  stamp  of  a  distinct  field  of 
labor  to  neurology  and  one  most  worthy  to  be  pursued. 

For  my  own  part,  I  must  make  the  personal  confession  that 
my  interest  in  neurology  was  first  awakened  by  the  teachings 
of  Hammond.  As  a  student  I  was  much  impressed  with  the 
force  of  this  assertion  in  the  dedication  of  his  work  to  Weir 
Mitchell  that  "  Neurology  is  the  most  important  department  of 
medical  science."  I  have,  therefore,  beside  my  feeling  of 
friendship  for  our  old  colleague,  a  sense  of  genuine  obligation 
for  the  stimulus  which  he  gave  me,  and  for  the  direction  in 
which  he  turned  my  work.  Many  others  have  doubtless  had 
the  same  interest  aroused  and  the  same  stimulus  given.  And  I 
still  feel  such  a  sense  of  personal  gratitude  that  this  occasion 
to-night  comes  not  alone  as  an  opportunity,  but  a  privilege 
most  warmly  welcomed  and  appreciated,  of  paying  my  tribute 
to  one  of  the  most  attractive  personalities  and  one  of  the  most 
powerful  and  effective  forces  in  American  Neurology. 


iqoo.I  HAMMOND,  THE  SURGEON-f )  EN  KRAL.  31 

2300  De  Lancev  Street,  Phh  idelphia,  Peb.  19,  1000. 
Directors  New  York  Post-Graduate  Medicai  School  \m>  Hospital: 

Gentlemen — I  have  received  your  invitation  to  attend  a  memorial 
meeting  in  honor  of  my  distinguished  friend,  General   Hammond. 

1  am  truly  sorry  that  crippled  feet  (from  chilblains;  have  laid  me  up 
and  will  prevent  my  attendance. 

I  have,  however,  prepared  an  account  of  General  Hammond's  doings  in 
the  office  of  Surgeon-General,  or  rather  a  portion  of  them,  which  I  have 
sent  to  Dr.  G.  M.  Hammond  to  be  read  at  said  memorial  meeting. 

Of  course  you  will  see  that  time  would  permit  mention  of  but  a  little  of 
what  he  did  deserving  of  mention. 

Very  sincerely, 

Joseimi  R.  Smith, 
Colonel  and  Assistant  Surgeon-General  U.  S.  A. 


HAMMOND,  THE    SURGEON-GENERAL. 

IJV 

DR.  JOSEPH    R.  SMITH,  U.S.A. 
(This  address  was  read  by  Professor  Ramon  Guiteras.) 

I  shall  speak  as  succinctly  as  possible  of  the  career  of  General 
Hammond  as  Surgeon  General. 

I  feel  that  some  claim  to  speak  about  him  belongs  to  me, 
because  I  am  a  corporator  of  the  Post- Graduate  Medical  School 
and  Hospital,  in  which  he  was  so  much  interested  and  to  which 
he  gave  so  much  valuable  time  and  service,  and  because  I  was 
with  him  in  the  Surgeon-General's  office  in  Washington,  where 
I  was  called  by  him  to  duty  in  July,  1862,  and  where  I  was  his 
chief  assistant  until  after  he  was  relieved  by  Mr.  Stanton  from 
duty  in  his  office.  During  all  this  time  my  relations'  with  him 
were  as  close  as  they  could  possibly  be. 

Upon  taking  charge  of  his  office  Dr.  Hammond  at  once  set 
out  to  remedy  the  evils  and  defects  that  he  discovered  in  the 
Medical  Bureau. 

One  of  the  first  subjects  receiving  attention  was  the  Report 
of  the  Sick  and  Wounded  made  by  medical  officers.  In  the  lapse 
of  years  these  reports  had  become  meagre  and  perfunctory.  On 
May  1st,  1862,  General  Hammond  specified  to  medical  officers 
some  of  the  subjects  to  be  embraced  in  their  reports,  but  on  May 
21st  he  announced  his  intention  to  establish  an  Army  Medical 
Museum,  and  instructed  medical  officers  in  their  reports  to  give 
details  in  surgery  of  certain  subjects  as  follows: 


32  HAMMOND,  THE  SURGEON-GENERAL.  [May 

Fractures,  the  date,  situation,  character,  direction,  treatment 
and  results. 

Gunshot  wounds,  the  date,  situation,  direction  and  character, 
foreign  matters  extracted  and  results. 

Amputations,  the  period  and  nature  of  the  injury,  the  character 
of  the  operation,  the  time,  place  and  result. 

Exsections,  the  injury  demanding  them,  the  date  of  injury,  of 
operation,  the  joint  or  bone  involved  and  the  result. 

In  medicine  he  desired  statistics  of  certain  diseases  as  fol- 
lows : 

Fevers,  the  character,  symptoms,  plans  of  treatment  found 
most  efficient,  and  remarks  on  location  and  sanitary  conditions 
of  camps  and  quarters. 

Diarrhea  and  dysentery,  the  grade  and  treatment,with  remarks 
on  the  character  of  the  rations  and  modes  of  cooking. 

Scorbutic  diseases,  the  character  and  symptoms,  causation  and 
means  employed  to  procure  exemption. 

Respiratory  diseases,  the  symptoms,  severity  and  treatment, 
the  sheltering  of  the  troops  and  the  atmospheric  conditions. 

Similar  reports  were  required  as  to  other  preventable  dis- 
eases, and  accounts  of  the  pathological  results  of  all  post  mortem 
examinations. 

Medical  officers  were  at  the  same  time  directed  "  to  collect 
and  forward  to  the  Surgeon- General's  office  all  specimens  of 
morbid  anatomy  (surgical  or  medical)  which  might  be  regarded 
as  valuable,  together  with  projectiles  and  foreign  bodies  re- 
moved," and  "such  other  matters  as  might  prove  of  interest  in 
the  study  of  military  medicine  or  surgery." 

Soon  afterwards,  viz.,  early  in  June,  1862,  General  Hammond 
formally  stated  to  the  medical  officers  his  intention  to  publish 
the  Medical  and  Surgical  History  of  the  Rebellion,  of  which  the 
medical  portion  was  committed  to  Assistant  Surgeon  J.  J.  Wood- 
ward, U.  S.  A.,  and  the  surgical  part  to  Brigade  Surgeon  J.  H. 
Brinton,  U.S.V. 

Medical  officers  were  requested  to  co-operate  by  forwarding 
"  such  sanitary,  topographical,  medical  and  surgical  reports, 
details  of  cases,  essays  and  results  of  investigations  and  inquiries 
as  might  be  of  value  for  the  work." 

Very  soon  after  his  appointment  the  need  of  a  library  to  the 
Surgeon  General's  office  forced  itself  upon  General  Hammond's 
attention.  When  he  took  possession  of  his  office  the  only  library 


iqoo.]  HAMMOND.  THE  SURGEON-GENERAL.  33 

there  consisted  of  a  small  number  of  modern  medical  books 
ranged  on  a  few  shelves  in  the  front  room  of  the  office  in  Rigg's 
bank  and  some  old,  mostly  useless  books  packed  in  boxes  in  the 
garret,  and  such  search  as  he  was  able  to  make  failed  to  show 
that  effort  had  been  made  to  obtain  money  to  buy  books  or  per- 
mission to  form  a  suitable  library. 

Surgeon  Brinton  had  knowledge  of  books,  and  few  men  in 
the  country  were  more  familiar  than  he  with  the  literature  of  the 
profession;  so  General  Hammond  concluded  it  would  be  best  to 
establish  together  the  museum  and  library. 

Secretary  Stanton  had  consented  to  the  museum,  but  did  not 
share  General  Hammond's  opinion  as  to  the  necessity  of  the 
library. 

Senator  Fessenden  was  Chairman  of  the  Senate  Committee 
on  Appropriations,  and  in  the  fall  of  1862  came  to  the  office  of 
the  Surgeon-General  to  consult  with  the  latter  as  to  the  items  of 
the  medical  appropriation.  To  this  conference  I  was  summoned. 
When  the  item  for  the  museum  was  reached  Senator  Fessenden 
assented  to  it,  but  did  not  think  it  wise  to  go  counter  to  Secretary 
Stanton's  views  as  to  the  purchase  of  books.  Looking  around 
the  office,  he  asked  how  those  had  been  bought.  General  Ham- 
mond said  he  did  not  know;  that  some  seemed  to  have  been 
bought  from  the  contingent  fund  and  some  by  the  purveyor. 

The  Senator  then  asked  why  part  of  the  appropriation  for 
the  museum  could  not  be  expended  for  books,  and  was  informed 
that  said  appropriation  was  hardly  enough  for  the  needs  of  the 
museum;  that  such  a  library  as  was  needed  would  require  about 
$25,000  each  year.  Senator  Fessenden  thought  that  out  of  the 
question,  and  so  the  matter  rested  temporarily.  During  the 
winter,  though,  Dr.  Hammond  did  not  fail  to  press  the  library 
question  on  both  the  Secretary  of  War  and  the  Chairman  of  the 
Senate  Committee  on  Appropriations  until  the  act  appropriating 
money  for  the  support  of  the  army,  passed  soon  after  and  ap- 
proved February  9th,  1863,  contained  the  item  of  $5,000  for  the 
museum,  but  no  item  for  purchase  of  books.  The  several  next 
succeeding  annual  appropriation  acts  gave  no  money  for  either 
museum  or  library,  and  not  till  the  act  approved  March  2d,  1867, 
was  General  Barnes  able  to  have  items  inserted  of  $10,000  for 
the  museum  and  $10,000  for  the  library, since  which  date  money 
has  been  habitually  granted  for  the  purchase  of  books  for  the 
library  for  which  General  Hammond  labored. 


34  HAMMOND,  THE  SURGEON-GttNERAL.  [May 

The  outcome  of  these  projects  is  known  to  you  all.  The 
Museum,  the  Medical  and  Surgical  History  of  the  War,  and  the 
Library  of  the  Surgeon  General's  Office,  while  reflecting  credit 
on  Woodward,  Brinton,  Otis,  Billings  and  Fletcher,  are  im- 
perishable monuments  to  the  wise  foresight  and  broad  views  of 
their  projector,  Dr.  Hammond. 

With  the  question  of  the  care  of  the  sick  and  wounded  was 
inseparably  connected  the  question  of  a  hospital  or  ambulance 
corps  and  nursing  in  general.  Dr.  Hammond  early  brought  the 
question  before  Secretary  Stanton,  to  whom  the  matter  appeared 
in  less  than  its  true  proportions.  However,  by  constant  urging, 
the  Honorable  Secretary  was  brought  to  give  a  limited  approval 
in  June,  1862,  at  wThich  time  he  authorized  the  employment  of 
civilian  cooks  and  nurses  in  general  hospitals,  which  permission 
scarcely  met  the  expressed  views  of  the  Surgeon-General. 

About  the  middle  of  June,  1862,  Dr.  Letterman  was  assigned 
as  Medical  Director  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  and  as  soon  as 
he  had  familiarized  himself  with  the  needs  of  that  army,  General 
Hammond  summoned  him  to  Washington  to  receive  instructions 
and  for  consultation,  at  which  time  the  ambulance  corps  question 
received  full  consideration.  Letterman  had  already  studied  the 
subject,  and  his  views  and  General  Hammond's  harmonized. 

It  seemed  probable  that  General  McClellan,  commanding  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac,  might  be  brought  to  see  the  necessity  of 
such  a  corps,  and  Letterman  returned  to  the  army,  proposing  to 
bring  the  matter  to  the  notice  of  the  commanding  General.  He 
did  so,  and  soon  wrote  up  that  General  McClellan  would  authorize 
a  corps.  Some  time  was  needed  to  perfect  plans,  and  in  the 
beginning  of  August  the  ambulance  corps  of  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac  came  into  existence — the  prototype  of  the  corps  which 
later  was  authorized  for  the  whole  army. 

In  the  latter  part  of  August  General  Hammond  again  asked 
the  Secretary  to  sanction  the  organization  of  an  ambulance  corps, 
and  shortly  after,  when  the  Medical  Inspector  sent  to  the  battle- 
field of  the  second  Bull  Run  reported  the  condition  of  the 
wounded,  suffering  there  from  lack  of  organized  system  to  care 
for  them,  Dr.  Hammond  again  asked  the  aid  of  the  Secretary  in 
an  exceedingly  forcible  letter,  but  once  more  his  appeals  met 
with  an  unfavorable  response. 

In  March,  1864,  the  seed  sown  by  General  Hammond  bore 
fruit,  and  Congress  passed  an  act  establishing   an   ambulance 


igoo  ]  HAMMOND,  THE  SURGEdN-GENERAL.  35 

corps  on  a  plan  essentially  the  same  as  the  one  that  had  been 
matured  in  the  office  of  the  Surgeon-General. 

In  this  connection  one  thing  more  must  be  mentioned.  In 
August,  1 36 1,  Congress  authorized  the  substitution  of  female  for 
soldier  nurses  in  general  hospitals,  when  deemed  expedient  by 
the  Surgeon-General  or  surgeon  in  charge,  the  number  to  be  in- 
dicated by  them.  Female  nurses  had  been  employed  in  many 
of  the  hospitals  in  1861,  but  their  employment  was  not  perfectly 
systematized.  General  Hammond  decided  to  give  full  trial  to 
the  experiment.  He  conferred  freely,  not  only  with  Miss  Dix, 
who  was  the  Superintendent  of  Female  Nurses,  but  with  others 
particularly  interested  in  the  matter,  notably  with  Mrs.  Russell 
of  New  Bedford,  Mrs.  Ames  of  Boston,  Mrs.  General  Lander  and 
Miss  Kate  Chase,  and  in  July  issued  regulations  governing  the 
employment  of  these  nurses,  their  proportion  being  one  to  two 
males. 

The  question  of  medical  supplies  had  also  been  under  con- 
sideration and  partially  acted  on.  The  act  of  Congress  of  April 
r6,  1  S6 2,  contained  a  section  aiming  to  simplify  the  procurement 
of  supplies  in  emergencies.  General  Hammond  ordered  a  board 
of  medical  officers  to  meet  at  his  office  for  the  purpose  of  revising 
the  supply  table  of  the  Medical  Department.  He  conferred  freely 
with  the  board,  giving  his  views  as  to  the  greater  number  of 
articles  needed  and  the  changes  required  to  keep  the  table 
abreast  with  the  progress  of  medical  science.  The  board  re- 
ported, and  after  considering  their  report  the  Surgeon-General, 
on  September  20th,  1862,  issued  a  new  supply  table,  liberal  as  to 
the  number  and  amount  of  articles  allowed,  facilitating  their 
issue  in  time  of  emergency  and  enforcing  a  strict  accountability. 
Further  orders  were  issued  May  7th,  1863,  charging  purveyors  to 
buy  the  best,  and  declaring  them  "responsible  for  the  quality  of 
the  medical  and  hospital  supplies  purchased  by  them." 

As  an  additional  safeguard  the  Surgeon- General  established 
laboratories  where  army  medical  supplies  were  prepared.  Thus, 
not  only  good  articles  were  supplied,  but  at  a  moderate  expense. 
The  following  will  show  the  effect  of  this:  In  1863  the  price  of 
quinin  in  the  market  was  very  high,  and  continued  to  rise  until 
it  reached  a  point  which,  in  the  opinion  of  Dr.  Hammond,  was 
extortion.  He  accordingly  considered  the  feasibility  of  its 
manufacture  at  an  army  laboratory.  One  day  the  reporter  of  a 
New  York    paper  came  into  the  office  asking  news.     General 


36  HAMMOND,  THE  SURGEON-GENERAL.  [May 

Hammond  told  him  that  the  price  of  quinin  was  now  so  high 
that  it  seemed  as  if  the  Medical  Department  would  have  to 
make  its  own  quinin.  This  item  was  duly  published.  At  once 
the  price  of  quinin  came  down,  and  the  army  laboratory  made 
no  quinin. 

Dr.  Hammond  promptly  studied  the  question  of  hospital  con- 
struction. The  first  large  general  hospitals  were  established  in 
cities,  as  buildings  large  enough  to  receive  the  sick  could  here 
be  found  already  built,  and  because  the  water  supply  and  sewer- 
age were  already  provided.  In  these  hospitals  a  large  mortality 
quickly  appeared,  due  to  erysipelas,  gangrene  and  fevers,  which 
carried  off  many  patients.  General  Hammond  was  firmly  con- 
vinced that  proper  ventilation  would  greatly  decrease  this  mor- 
tality, and  the  experience  in  the  Crimea  and  elsewhere,  in  his 
judgment,  showed  that  this  could  best  be  attained  by  ridge  ven- 
tilated pavilions.  These  pavilions  were  to  be  lighted  abundantly 
by  windows,  which  were  also  ventilating  apertures;  were  to  be 
as  free  as  possible  from  nooks  and  corners  where  foul  air  could 
lodge,  and  to  be  provided  amply  with  wash-rooms  and  water- 
closets.  The  largest  hospitals  were  to  be  an  aggregate  of  such 
pavilions,  with  the  necessary  buildings  for  offices.  These  prin- 
ciples being  recognized,  many  pavilions  were  brought  together 
under  one  management,  until  more  than  three  thousand  patients 
were  cared  for  in  a  single  hospital.  This  number  of  patients, 
with  those  needed  to  care  for  them,  including  surgeons,  nurses, 
cooks  and  mechanics,  constituted  a  good  sized  town;  a  laundry, 
stable,  chapel  and  dead-house,  dining-rooms,  kitchens  and  store- 
rooms, operating-rooms,  guard-houses,  and  quarters  for  male  and 
female  nurses  and  the  employees,  were  all  supplied.  In  such 
hospitals,  adoption  of  which  throughout  the  army  was  due  to 
General  Hammond  mainly,  the  immense  number  of  sick  and 
wounded  treated  from  1862  to  1866  showed  a  mortality  less  than 
had  ever  been  before  known  under  similar  circumstances. 

General  Hammond  also  elaborated  a  scheme  for  an  Army 
Medical  School.  In  the  ranks  of  the  brigade  surgeons  and  sur- 
geons of  volunteers  were  to  be  found  some  of  the  best  medical 
and  surgical  talent  of  the  country,  while  in  the  regular  army 
were  to  be  found  a  number  of  men  who  have  since  attained  the 
highest  distinction  as  teachers,  surgeons  and  practitioners.  Some 
of  these  were  consulted,  and  consented  to  teach  in  the  army 
school,  while  the  choice  of  others  was  deferred  until  the  plan 


iqoo.l  HAMMOND,  TI11C  SURGEON-GENERAL.  37 

had  been  approved  by  Secretary  .Stanton.  Dr.  Hammond  pre- 
sented his  plan  to  the  Secretary  and  urged  it  with  all  his 
eloquence,  but  in  vain.  The  Secretary  disapproved  of  it,  and 
the  plan  was  reluctantly  dropped. 

In  these  more  peaceful  times  the  Secretary  of  War  has 
approved  such  a  plan,  and  such  a  school  is  now  in  operation  in 
Washington,  though  much  more  limited  than  that  elaborately 
planned  by  Hammond. 

The  above  are  but  a  few  of  the  many  improvements  in  the 
Army  Medical  Department  which  originated  in  Dr.  Hammond's 
active  mind. 

Something  must  now  be  said  about  Dr.  Hammond's  dismissal 
from  the  army. 

The  appointment  of  General  Hammond  had  been  opposed 
by  Secretary  Stanton,  who  had  a  candidate  of  his  own.  Not- 
withstanding this,  however,  President  Lincoln  appointed  Ham- 
mond. 

Stanton  and  Hammond  were  both  positive  men  and  deter- 
mined. Many  of  the  views  of  one  regarding  the  administration 
of  the  Army  Medical  Bureau  were  opposed  to  those  of  the 
other  Each  persisted,  but  Secretary  Stanton  was  the  controlling 
power  and  concluded  that  it  was  best  for  him  to  get  rid  of  the 
Surgeon-General.  He  had  gotten  rid  of  the  former  Surgeon- 
General,  Finley,  without  a  court,  by  simply  ordering  him  away 
from  Washington  to  Boston  and  keeping  him  there  until  he 
asked  to  be  retired.  The  fame  and  influence  of  Hammond  for- 
bade such  a  course.  Consequently  charges  were  brought  against 
him  and  he  was  tried  by  a  court-martial. 

Before  this  the  Secretary  had  ordered  him  away  from  his 
post  in  Washington,  so  that  in  December  23d,  1S63,  General 
Hammond  appealed  to  the  President,  stating  his  wrongs  and 
asking  that  he  might  be  restored  to  his  proper  official  position  or 
brought  to  trial  in  case  any  charges  of  malfeasance  or  unfitness 
were  entertained  against  him. 

July  19th,  1864,  the  court  proceeded  with  Dr.  Hammond's 
trial  on  three  charges.  Eleven  specifications  supported  these 
charges,  which  naturally  come  under  three  heads:  first,  those 
alleging  acts  in  excess  of  his  legal  authority;  second,  those  dis- 
tinctly charging  personal  corruption  and  intent  to  aid  others  to 
defraud  the  Government;  third,  wilful  falsehood. 


38  HAMMOND,  THE  SURGEON-GENERAL.  [May 

The  specifications  in  the  first  and  second  category  regarded 
purchasing  or  not  purchasing  supplies  for  the  Medical  Depart- 
ment. 

To  fully  treat  of  these  matters  would  take  much  time,  so  in 
brief  I  will  state  that  as  the  majority  of  the  transactions  em- 
braced in  the  specifications  took  place  while  I  was  in  the  office 
of  the  Surgeon-General  I  had  official  cognizance  of  them. 

Further,  after  Dr.  Hammond's  conviction  I  spent  many  days 
in  reading  the  evidence  contained  in  the  proceedings  of  the 
court. 

I  found  there  no  attempt  to  show  personal  profit  by  General 
Hammond  or  acts  in  themselves  corrupt,  but  corrupt  intent  was 
inferred  from  the  acts  of  buying  or  ordering  to  be  bought  by 
purveyors,  which  acts  it  was  claimed  were  an  usurpation  of 
authority  by  the  Surgeon- General  and  not  in  accordance  with 
the  former  customs  of  his  office. 

After  careful  examination  of  the  evidence  before  the  court, 
with  personal  knowledge  of  the  most  of  the  acts  charged  as 
crimes  and  with  the  knowledge  of  the  character  of  General 
Hammond  acquired  by  intimate  association  with  him  for  more 
than  forty  years,  I  must  record  my  belief  that  his  conviction  and 

SENTENCE   WERE    NOT  WARRANTED    BY  THE    EVIDENCE. 

The  court,  however,  convicted  General  Hammond  and  sen- 
tenced him  to  dismissal,  to  which  he  had  to  submit. 

As  further  refutal  of  the  charge  of  corruption  I  will  state 
what  many  of  you  do  not  know,  viz.,  that  he  was  unable  to  move 
his  family  and  household  effects  irom  Washington  to  his  new 
home  until  he  had  received  a  purse  which  was  presented  to  him 
by  a  most  eminent  gentleman  of  our  profession  still  living  in 
Philadelphia,  and  who  knew  him  to  be  innocent. 

Dr.  Hammond  promptly  took  steps  to  obtain  redress,  and  on 
Christmas  Day,  1864,  petitioned  the  Senate  "to  inquire  into  all 
the  circumstances  connected  with  his  recent  trial  and  dismissal," 
but  not  until  1879  did  he  secure  a  vindication — a  vindication  not 
only  stronger  than  my  opinion,  but  which  was  final  and  complete. 
Congress  passed  a  bill  authorizing  the  President  "  to  review  the  pro- 
ceedings of  Getter al  Hammond's  court,"  and  to  annul  and  set  aside  the 
findings  and  sentence  of  said  court  "  if  after  such  review  he  shall  deem 
it  right  and  proper,"  and.  "  in  the  event  of  the  findings  and  sentence  of 
said  court  being  set  aside"  the  President  is  " further  authorized  to 
place  Dr.  Hammond  on  the  retired  list  of  the  army  as  Surg  eon- 
General." 


lyno  |  llAM.MUNU,   TI1K  SURGEON-QEN^RAL  3g 

The  Congressional  Record  shows  that  House  bill  2108,  for 
Hammond's  relief,  was  reported  back  from  the  Committee  on 
Military  Affairs  to  the  House  by  Mr.  McCook,  of  New  York,  with 
a  recommendation  that  it  pass.  In  its  report  the  Military  Committee 
recites  the  charges  and  findings,  and  then  says:  "  The  Committee 
makes  special  reference  to  some  of  the  extracts  from  the  finding 
of  the  court  for  the  purpose  of  showing  that  in  many  of  the  in- 
stances at  least  it  failed  to  find  that  corrupt  intent  with  which 
General  Hammond  was  charged,  and  which,  as  before  stated, 
he  solemnly  denies. ." 

The  bill  in  substance,  as  aforesaid,  then  passed  the  House. 

In  the  Senate  the  bill  was  ordered  printed  February  1 9th,  and 
the  report  of  the  Committee  on  Military  Affairs  accompanying 
the  bill  after  reciting  the  charges,  etc.,  says  (page  4),  "a  careful 
unbiased  and  searching  scrutiny  of  the  evidence  adduced  upon  the  trial, 
as  presented  and  reviewed  by  Dr.  Hammond,  as  well  as  mature  con- 
sideration of  the  argument  of  the  distinguished  counsel  who  represented 
Dr.  Hammond  on  the  occasion  of  his  trial,  forces  irresistibly  the  con- 
clusion that  the  gravamen  of  all  the  charges,  save  one,  was  either 
disproved  by  the  defense,  abandoned  by  the  prosecution,  or 
eliminated  by  the  findings  of  the  court.  The  single  charge  of 
which  the  gravamen  was  not  found  wanting  by  the  court,  was 
in  itself  trifling  if  not  frivolous,  and  certainly  insufficient  in 
character  and  importance  to  arraign,  try,  convict,  and  pronounce 
sentence  thereupon,  in  the  manner  and  form  as  are  in  the 
records  of  the  court  martial  set  forth." 

The  report  further  says  (page  14)  "your  Committee  believe  this  to 
be  a  case  wherein  the  constitutional  prerogative  of  Congress  to  redress 
grievances  maybe  safely,  justly,  and  fairly  exercised,  especially  since  the 
President  is  invested  by  the  provisions  of  the  bill,  with  wise  discretion. 
If  he  finds  against  the  merits  and  equities  of  the  case,  then  the 
relief  sought  must  be  denied.  If  he  find  otherwise  and  hence  fav- 
orably, Dr.  Hammond  will  then  receive  the  reparation  to  7(>hich  he  is 
entitled  " 

March  7th,  the  bill  was  debated  in  the  Senate.  Senator  Conk- 
ling  advocated  the  bill  and  eulogized  General  Hammond. 

Senator  Cockrell  desired  a  short  delay,  having  some  doubts 
as  to  the  consitutionality  of  the  action  proposed;  but  he  said  "I 
am  not  disposed  to  throw  any  obstruction  in  the  way,  and  I  do  not  dis- 
sent from  anything  the  Senator  from  New  York  has  said  in  regard 
to  the  character  of  Dr.  Hammond. 


4o  HAMMOND,  THE  SURGEON-GENERAL.  [May 

Senator  Maxey  said  "  /  am  a  member  of  the  Committee  of  Mili- 
tary Affairs  which  reported  the  bill,  and  I  have  never  voted  for  the  re- 
port of  a  bill  with  a  more  perfectly  clear  conviction  that  the  bill  was 
entirely  equitable  and  right." 

Randolph  of  New  Jersey  endorsed  the  Senator  from  New- 
York. 

Senator  Bayard  pronounced  in  favor  of  the  constitutionality 
of  the  bill. 

Senator  Plumb  alone  opposed;  but  even  he  said  (see  Congres- 
sional Record  of  March  12th)  "Now  it  is  a  part  of  the  outside  his- 
tory of  this  bill  before  Congress,  that  Secretary  Stanton  had  a  spite 
against  General  Hammond  and  that  he  gratified  his  spite  by  bringing 
him  before  his  court-martial  and  procuring  him  to  be  unlawfully  and 
unwarrantably  dismissed. 

March  12th  the  Senate  voted — Fifty-six  Senators  were  present 
voting.  Of  these  55  voted  in  favor  of  the  bill,  and  only  one,  Sena- 
tor Plumb,  voted  nay. 

The  case  was  then  considered  in  due  course  by  Secretary 
of  War,  McCrary,  himself  a  lawyer  of  the  highest  rank,  who  re- 
ported that  in  his  opinion  "the  evidence  did  not  establish  the 
charge  of  corruption,"  "  that  the  charge  of  falsehood  was  not 
sustained,"  and  that  in  construing  the  act  of  Congress  (under 
which  he  had  purchased  supplies)  "Dr.  Hammond  was  guilty 
of  no  crime."  "  The  construction  he  placed  upon  that  act, 
whether  erroneous  or  not,  was  entirely  consonant  with  an  honest 
purpose." 

With  all  the  foregoing  and  the  proceedings  of  the  court  before 
him,  the  President  only  did  his  duty  in  restoring  General  Hammond  to 
the  army,  vindicated. 

I  must  here  add  the  following  extract  from  a  personal  letter 
of  Secretary  McCrary  written  to  General  Hammond  after  his 
restoration,  which  reads  as  follows:  "  Upon  reaching  the  con- 
clusion after  a  thorough  examination  of  your  case  that  a  great 
wrong  had  been  done  you,  and  that  you  were  clearly  entitled  to 
vindication,  it  was  with  great  pleasure  that  I  recommended 
your  restoration  to  the  army.  I  can  say  to  you,  with  the  ut- 
most sincerity  that  I  have  never  performed  an  official  act  with 
a  clearer  conviction  that  I  was  doing  simple  justice.  I  am  glad 
to  note  that  the  country,  with  scarcely  a  dissenting  voice,  ap- 
proves and  applauds  the  act,  and  I  beg  most  heartily  to  con- 
gratulate you  upon  your  long  delayed,  but  complete  vindication." 


igoo.]  HAMMOND,  THE  SURGEON  GENERAL.  m 

I  quote  farther  the  testimony  of  the  president  of  the  United 
States  Sanitary  Commission,  the  Reverend  Doctor  Bellows.  In 
a  letter  to  Senator  Wilson  he  says:  "The  Surgeon-General  has 
brought  order  out  of  chaos  in  his  department,  and  efficiency  out 
of  imbecility.  The  sick  and  wounded  owe  a  hundred  times  over 
more  to  the  Government  and  the  Medical  Department,  than  to 
all  the  outside  influences  and  benevolences  of  the  country  combined,  in- 
cluding the  Sanitary  Commission.  The  Surgeon- General  is  the  best 
friend  the  soldier  has  in  this  country,  because  he  wields  the  benevolence 
of  the  United  States  Government ;  and  for  God's  sake  don  7  thwart  his 
zeal  and  wisdom," 

What  vindication  could  be  more  complete  / 

The  Executive  and  Legislative  departments  of  the  United 
States  Government  united  in  proclaiming  Dr.  Hammond's  in- 
nocence. 

He  occupied  the  highest  place  in  the  community,  attained,  first  in 
the  commercial  metropolis  of  the  nation,  and  next  in  its  capital. 

A  status  reached — professional,  literary,  scientific,  and  social, 
that  is  not  surpassed  by  that  of  any  other  man. 

A  death  deplored by  his  country  and  the  press. 

Not  long  after  General  Hammond's  death,  I  had  an  inter- 
view with  President  McKinley.  Speaking  of  General  Hammond, 
the  President  said,  "  he  was  a  great  man,  the  country  has  lost  a  very 
great  man." 

General  Hammond  became  Surgeon-General  in  the  most 
troublous  times  the  Medical  Department  of  the  Army  had  ever 
known.  As  its  guide  and  leader  at  this  time  he  encountered 
problems  the  solution  of  which  had  no  precedents.  He  was 
thrown  upon  his  own  resources. 

He  proved  himself  an  eminently  capable  and  a  successful  ad- 
ministrator, and  now  that  the  jealousies  and  ill  feelings  of  those 
days  have  disappeared,  it  will  be  hard  to  find  anyone  to  deny 
that  his  career  as  Surgeon-General  reflected  lustre,  both  on  the 
Medical  Department  of  which  he  was  the  chief,  and  on  himself 
as  its  leader. 

In  closing  I  wish  to  express  my  pride  and  pleasure  in  the 
warm  friendship  that  existed  between  Dr.  Hammond  and  my- 
self for  so  many  years. 

JOS.  R.   SMITH, 
Col.  and  Assistant  Surgeon-General  U.  S.  Army. 


42  HAMMOND,  THE  LITTERATEUR.  [May 

DR.  HAMMOND  THE  LITTERATEUR. 

BY 

A.  E.  LANCASTER. 

It  was  with  all  the  equipments  of  maturity  that  Dr.  Ham- 
mond, in  the  year  1884,  gave  to  the  world  a  novel  bearing  the 
brief  and  euphonious  name,  "  Lai."  It  met  with  immediate  and 
wide  success — a  success  so  definite  and  emphatic  as  to  provoke, 
in  some  quarters,  the  resentful  question  as  to  what  right  so 
prosperous  a  practitioner  of  medicine  had  to  stray  from  physic 
to  fancy,  and  from  surgery  to  sentiment.  The  reply  might  have 
been  that  his  right  consisted  in  his  ability  to  do  so.  It  is  the 
same  right  which  any  literary  or  artistic  workman  has  to  enter 
the  realm  of  medicine  and  surgery,  the  right  depending  solely 
upon  compliance  with  the  conditions  that  govern  that  field. 
There  is  this  difference,  however — it  is  the  first  duty  of  the 
novelist  to  interest  us.  If  he  does  not  do  that,  whatever  merits 
he  may  have  to  set  off  that  initial  defect  will  count  as  nothing. 
The  physician  may  administer  a  sedative  or  a  sleeping  draught; 
but  if  the  novelist  does  so,  he  had  better  never  have  been  born. 
The  surgeon  may  amputate  a  limb,  and  receive  our  thanks. 
The  novelist  may  only  amputate  superfluous  chapters  and  cut 
away  unnecessary  sermonizing.  Both  doctor  and  surgeon  may 
cause  us  anguish,  and  we  bear  them  no  ill-will;  but  if  the  novel- 
ist pains  us  in  any  other  sense  than  that  of  a  sympathetic  grief, 
amounting  to  a  sentimental  luxury,  his  career — if  he  ever  had 
any — is  closed. 

It  was  with  a  clear  perception  of  these  facts  that  Dr.  Ham- 
mond addressed  himself  to  the  task  of  novel-writing.  It  might 
have  been  surmised  that  one  who  so  well  knew  how  to  "  minister 
to  a  mind  diseased,"  would  have  got  his  pen  so  entangled  in  the 
meshes  of  pathology,  that  the  shadow  of  the  sick  room,  or  the 
gleam  of  the  scalpel,  or  the  morbid  secrets  of  psychology  would 
be  found  haunting  his  plots.  But  such  is  not  the  case.  One  of 
the  chief  characteristics  of  his  romances  is  their  healthiness  of 
tone,  the  legitimate  manner  in  which  they  deal  with  the  nor- 
malities instead  of  the  abnormalities  of  life,  their  avoidance,  as 
a  rule,  of  those  types  in  which  nature  seems  to  have  been  un- 
faithful to  herself  by  producing  what  is  commonly  recognized 
as  unnatural. 

The  course  which  Dr.  Hammond  followed  in  creating  the 
plots  and  characters  of  a  series  of  six  romances,  between  the 


igoo.]  HAMMOND,  THE  LITTERATEUR.  43 

years  1  8X4  and  1899,  can  be  approximately  indicated  by  consid- 
ering what  his  novels  are  not.  They  do  not  implicate  any  at- 
tempt to  explain  the  universe,  or  to  justify  the  ways  of  God  to 
man — they  are  not  philosophical.  None  of  the  characters  is  a 
mouthpiece  intended  to  inculcate  the  views  of  the  author  on 
political,  social,  or  scientific  questions — they  are  not  didactic. 
They  do  not,  with  the  exception  of  the  final  one,  "The  Son  of 
Perdition,"  deal  with  great  events  in  the  history  of  mankind — 
they  are  not  historical.  They  do  not  analyze  the  strange  sins 
and  startling  crimes  which,  taken  all  together,  constitute  the 
blackest  tragedy  of  human  life  —they  are  not  psychologic.  They 
are  not  sprinkled  with  new  words  wrenched  from  foreign  and 
dead  languages — for  the  author  had  wisely  no  desire  to  sacrifice 
everything  to  the  quest  of  originality  in  a  tortured  and  artificial 
style — they  are  not  ultra-classical.  They  are  not  steeped  in 
that  sensuous  sentimentality  which  delighted  so  many  of  us  in 
our  early  youth — for  they  are  not  Bulwerian.  They  are  not  so 
intricate  of  plot  as  to  be  inscrutable  up  to  the  last  paragraph — 
they  are  not  melodramatic.  On  the  other  hand,  they  do  not 
cynically  inform  us  that  the  youthful  hero  and  heroine  are  at 
present  a  middle  aged  couple,  happily  married,  and  living  on 
Fifth  avenue — they  are  not  Thackerayan.  They  do  not  make 
the  great  mistake,  committed  by  more  than  one  novelist  whom 
the  world  names  master  of  his  craft,  of  causing  their  dramatis 
personam  to  share  the  verbal  characteristics  of  the  author — they 
do  not  imitate  Balzac  or  George  Meredith.  And,  finally,  they 
do  not  largely  deal  with  fashion's  pleasures  and  palaces,  of 
which  many  romancers  note  so  much  and  know  so  little — they 
are  not  "society"  novels. 

And  now,  having  taken  a  negative  look  at  Dr.  Hammond's 
imaginative  writings,  let  us  acquire  a  more  direct  knowledge  of 
them  by  contemplating  them  from  the  positive  side.  In  certain 
respects  "  Lai."  the  first  of  the  series,  is  typical  of  all  the  rest. 
It  is  so  in  the  healthiness  of  its  handling  and  the  tonicity  of  its 
atmosphere.  The  Polish  patriot,  Tyscovus,  is  broadly  repre- 
sentative of  an  old  and  illustrious  civilization,  and  is  powerfully 
antagonized  with  Jim  Bosler,  the  horse-thief  and  murderer  of 
Hellbender,  Bill  Dodd's  Canon,  and  Wild  Cat  Creek.  But  its 
dominant  motif  is  to  show  how  a  young  girl,  brought  up  from 
infancy  amid  the  rudest  and  roughest  surroundings,  may,  by 
virtue  of  those  latent  essentials  found  in  a  naturally  good  brain 


44  HAMMOND,  THE  LITTERATEUR.  [May 

and  a  naturally  fine  character,  triumph  over  the  disadvantages  of 
a  most  lamentable  environment  as  soon  as  an  adequate  oppor- 
tunity appears.  To  those  who  look  deeply  into  the  story  its 
main  interest  consists  in  the  manner  in  which  it  depicts  the 
development  of  a  soul,  first  through  external  events  which 
change  the  environment,  and  afterward  through  the  influences 
that  dawn  with  love  and  affect  the  spiritual  nature.  As  the 
author  himself  says  of  his  heroine:  "  She  had  grown  up  like  a 
garden  weed,  untutored  and  uncared  for.  Yes,  even  worse;  for 
the  good  points  which  Nature  had  put  into  her  had  not  even 
been  allowed  to  develop  after  their  own  way,  but  had  been 
dwarfed,  and  twisted,  and  deformed  and  crowded  out  of  place, 
by  the  circumstances  under  which  she  had  lived  as  a  child  and 
expanded  into  womanhood."  But  while  this  is  the  case,  the 
author  did  not  ignore  the  opportunity  of  painting  a  companion 
picture  in  Theodora  Willis,  the  woman  who  studied  medicine, 
not  in  order  to  practice  it  as  a  profession,  but  because  she  loved 
it  as  a  science  to  be  made  use  of  for  the  good  it  enabled  her  to 
do.  In  his  portrait  of  Theodora  Willis,  Dr.  Hammond  was  as 
successful  as  in  that  of  Lai;  for,  while  the  former  revealed  that 
quality  of  mind  which  the  world  calls  masculine,  united  with 
that  quality  of  temperament  which  is  essentially  feminine,  com- 
bined with  talent  and  training  unusual  in  degree  and  kind,  the 
other  displayed  a  totally  ignorant  and  uncultivated  soul,  with 
all  its  finest  tendrils  ready  to  thrill  responsive  to  the  sunlight  of 
love  and  the  rain  and  dew  of  culture.  The  soul  and  the  body  are 
so  dependent  upon  each  other  that  they  might,  perhaps,  be  not 
inaccurately  described  as  interpenetrative  twins,  the  psychical 
and  the  physical  having  reciprocal  relations  which  cannot  be 
permanently  suspended  if  life  is  to  endure;  and  in  each  of  the 
female  characters  just  mentioned,  those  relations  are  shown, 
symmetrically  developed  in  the  one  case,  and  reaching  after 
symmetry,  and  finally  obtaining  it,  in  the  other. 

The  romance  entitled  "  A  Strong-Minded  Woman;  or,  Two 
Years  Later,"was  called  "  A  Sequel  to  Lai,"  but  the  character 
which  had  most  charmed  the  public  in  the  first  novel,  held  a 
secondary  place  in  this  one,  and  though  some  of  the  leading 
problems  of  the  day  were  ably  discussed,  and  a  woman  with  a 
strong  mind  was  skilfully  shown  to  be  capable  of  possessing  all 
the  fascinations  of  femininity  and  none  of  the  foibles,  yet  the  wild 
heroine  of  the  West,  as  first  presented  to  us,  eclipsed  her  culti- 


igoo.]  HAMMOND,  THE  LITTERATEUR.  45 

vated  rival,  just  as  a  prairie  flower  may  sometimes  find  favor 
above  the  conservatory  rose.  In  "  Dr.  Grattan,"  the  only  one 
of  the  series  in  whose  baptismal  name  Dr.  Hammond  inserted 
a  professional  prefix,  the  interest  lies  largely  in  the  question 
whether  Lamar,  the  heroine's  father,  has  really  been  a  slave- 
holder, or  only  morbidly  imagines  himself  to  have  been  one. 
The  dramatic  force  arising  out  of  a  struggle  between  the  ob- 
jective and  the  subjective,  strong  as  it  is  conceded  to  be,  was 
surpassed  in  the  climax  with  which  the  reader  of  "  Mr.  Old- 
mixon,"  one  of  Dr.  Hammond's  most  versatile  and  brilliant 
efforts,  was  confronted  on  almost  the  last  page.  It  is  there  that 
the  villian  Hogarth  makes  his  final  exit,  to  the  unexpected  ac- 
companiment of  "The  Rogue's  March,"  a  particularly  pertinent 
and  happy  conceit,  which  might  be  utilized  upon  the  stage  with 
emphatic  effect.  But  it  is  the  self-unconscious  humor  of  Mr. 
Oldmixon's  character  that  breathes  an  atmosphere  of  geniality 
from  first  to  last.  A  notable  instance  of  this  is  what  may  be 
called  the  gastronomical  chapter — that  in  which  Mr.  Oldmixon 
discourses,  with  Epicurean  eloquence,  on  the  pleasures  of  the 
table,  and  announces,  as  with  the  auchority  of  an  axiom,  that 
the  only  wines  fit  to  drink  with  oysters  are  Chablis  and  Montra- 
chet.  It  is  at  this  dinner  that  an  unfortunate  man  named  Par- 
tridge commits  the  solecism  of  asking  for  currant  jelly  in  order 
that  he  may  spread  it  over  two  choice  slices  of  canvas-back  to 
which  he  has  just  been  helped.  From  that  moment  Mr.  Par- 
tridge becomes,  in  the  eyes  of  Mr.  Oldmixon,  an  offender  of  the 
deepest  dye,  to  whom  remorse  or  even  penitence  would  be  im- 
possible. For  his  guilt  consists  in  his  culpable  ignorance,  inex- 
cusable and  inexpiable  in  one  whom  his  host  had  "mistaken  for 
a  gentleman."  All  the  accompaniments  of  this  episode  are  dealt 
with  in  the  spirit  of  genuine  comedy,  and,  in  striking  contrast 
as  the3'  are  with  the  serious  dramatic  movement,  furnish  a  lively 
illustration  of  the  lighter  graces  that  loitered  around  Dr.  Ham- 
mond's pen.  His  Tragic  and  his  Comic  muse  were  on  the  best 
of  terms.  Each  did  her  duty  throughout  his  pages,  neither  in- 
terfering with  the  other.  Or,  to  vary  the  simile,  whenever  the 
Muses  and  the  Graces  were  assembled  together,  his  knowledge 
of  them  and  himself  informed  him  he  was  welcome;  but  he 
preferred  to  meet  them  in  smaller  clusters  rather  than  feast 
with  the  total  twelve  at  once. 

If  we  turn  from  these  volumes  to  the  last  of  the  series,  we 
shall   see  Dr.  Hammond  bringing  into  play,  in  the  latest  years 


46  HAMMOND,  THE  LITTERATEUR.  [May 

of  his  life,  that  mixture  of  audacity  and  caution  which  had  long- 
ago  helped  to  secure  for  him  a  unique  place  in  his  profession; 
for,  to  be  audacious  without  recklessness,  and  cautious  without 
timidity,  and  to  be  both  of  these  at  the  same  time,  so  that  each 
tempers  the  other,  is  to  be  blessed  with  a  successful  wisdom 
which  is  the  lot  of  comparatively  few.  In  the  romance  named, 
"The  Son  of  Perdition,"  which,  as  its  title  implies,  has  for  its 
subject  the  character  and  conduct  of  Judas  Iscariot,  these  quali- 
ties manifest  themselves  with  equal  force.  Any  novelist  who 
selects  for  his  dramatis  persona?  such  characters  as  Christ,  Judas, 
Satan,  Herod,  Herodias,  Pontius  Pilate,  Pilate's  wife  and  son, 
Mary  Magdalen,  Simon  Magus,  Sapphira.  and  the  disciple  Peter, 
to  mention  no  others,  and  combines  them  into  a  narrative  of 
500  pages,  inventing,  in  many  cases,  events,  motives,  behavior, 
and  inter-relations,  of  which  history  gives  no  hint,  performs  a 
task  the  intrepidity  of  which  is  manifest;  and  unless  the  brilliancy 
of  the  attempt  is  attuned  by  the  prudence  suggested  by  judg- 
ment and  good  taste,  failure  is  imminent.  Such  a  book  could 
not  be  written  unless  preceded  by  a  vast  deal  of  drudgery  in 
collecting  and  massing  together  the  knowledge  which  gives  an 
accurate  view  of  innumerable  minutiae  connected  with  the  daily 
life,  public  and  private,  of  rich  and  poor,  great  and  small,  noble 
and  plebian,  Jew  and  Samaritan;  and  after  all  these  materials 
have  been  co-ordinated,  it  remains  for  the  creative  imagination 
to  breathe  upon  them  the  vraisemblance  of  reality  and  the  at- 
mosphere of  the  antique. 

All  who  have  read  this  romance  will  remember  the  picture 
presented  of  Christ,  differing  as  it  does  in  many  points,  from 
the  conventional  ideal,  and  from  the  traditional  standard  which 
originated  no  one  knows  how,  and  descended  no  one  knows 
whence.  The  long,  black  hair  hanging  straightly  down  the  back, 
and  as  low  as  the  shoulders;  the  eye-brows,  strongly-marked, 
black  as  His  hair  and  joined  together — these  are  physical  char- 
acteristics as  strangely  contradictory  of  the  vision  engendered  by 
education,  as  was  the  celebrated  anthropomorphic  portrait  which 
years  ago  attained  celebrity  as  Page's  "  Head  of  Christ."  But 
Mr.  Page  indulged  in  what  most  people  regarded  as  a  rather 
fleshly  and  sensuous  imagery.  Dr.  Hammond's  restrained  des- 
cription imputes  intellect  of  the  highest  order  and  a  capacity  for 
expressing  the  strongest  emotion;  while  his  entire  treatment  of 


iqoo.]  HAMMOND,  THE  LITTERATEUR.  47 

Christ,  as  regards  His  especial  mission  in  the  work  of  salvation, 

reveals  Him  as  one 

"  Who  tried  each  art.  reproved  each  dull  delay, 
Allured  to  brighter  worlds,  and  Ay/ the  way." 

But  perhaps  a  still  more  difficult  work  was  the  introduction 
of  the  character  of  Satan.  It  is  safe  to  claim  that  to-day  Satan 
has  lost  much  of  that  horrible  reality  he  had  for  most  people  in 
Christian  countries  100  or  even  50  years  ago.  Then,  people  who 
fell  into  sin  ascribed  their  guilt  to  his  ubiquitously  infernal 
hypnotization  rather  than  to  their  own  tendencies,  spurred  by 
sudden  opportunity.  Dr.  Hammond  boldly  tackles  him  as  a 
supernatural  being  who  has,  or  who  ha  J,  power  to  assume 
human  shape  at  will,  in  order  to  lure  man  into  sin  by  promising 
pleasure  or  prosperity  as  the  reward,  and  solicitous  to  speak 
truth  when  evil  can  better  be  served  thereby  than  by  telling 
lies.  This  last  touch  is  a  particularly  artistic  one;  for  liars  are 
dangerous,  less  because  of  their  lies  than  because  of  the  truths 
they  sometimes  tell;  and  the  Prince  of  Darkness,  who  has  been 
declared  on  good  authority  to  be  a  liar  from  the  beginning, 
would  be  the  more  dangerously  deceptive  for  sometimes  telling 
the  truth.  In  this  respect  Dr.  Hammond  comes  much  nearer  to 
nature  than  the  celebrated  author  of  "  The  School  for  Scandal." 
It  will  be  remembered  that  in  that  unique  comedy,  (which  may 
be  described  as  being  in  five  acts  and  50  epigrams),  Mr.  Snake, 
a  transcendent  liar,  tells  the  truth  on  one  important  occasion,  but 
begs  that  it  may  never  be  made  generally  known,  inasmuch  as 
he  lives  by  the  badness  of  his  character,  and  if  it  were  once 
known  he  had  been  betrayed  into  an  honest  action,  he  would 
lose  every  friend  he  had  in  the  world!  This  may  be  amusing, 
in  an  atmosphere  laden  with  wit;  but  Dr.  Hammond's  Satan, 
who  makes  truth  the  slave  of  evil,  possesses  the  last  refinement 
of  an  infinite  liar. 

In  this  brief  resume  no  effort  has  been  made  to  do  entire 
justice  to  Dr.  Hammond's  capacity  in  the  field  of  fiction,  be- 
cause entire  justice  were  impossible  within  the  limitations  nec- 
essarily imposed.  Enough  has  been  said,  however,  to  show 
that  he  used  his  imagination,  his  humor,  his  geniality,  his  con- 
structive skill,  and  his  knowledge  of  life  as  gained  by  personal 
and  professional  experience,  on  the  side  of  moral  purity,  mental 
strength,  and  physical  well-being.  His  unobtrusive  philosophy 
abounds  with  the  health  that  sustains  hope,  and  the  hope  that 


48  HAMMOND'S  PROFESSIONAL  CAREER.  [May 

conduces  to  health.  The  steed  that  he  was  fond  of  mounting- 
was  neither  a  Pegasus  nor  a  hobby-horse.  The  star  to  which,  as 
Emerson  would  sa)?-,  he  "  hitched  his  wagon,"  was  neither  one 
of  those  blazing  meteors  that  dazzle  by  their  splendor  and  as- 
tonish by  their  flight,  nor  one  of  those  incalculably  distant  orbs 
which  the  eye  can  scarce  discern.  On  the  contrary,  it  shone 
hospitably  near  the  earth,  so  that  all  who  saw  it  could  bask 
beneath  its  light,  and  fancy  in  it  just  enough  of  heaven  to  be 
thankful  it  was  there. 


HAMMOND'S   PROFESSIONAL    CAREER. 


Professor  Andrew  H.  Smith  made  some  extemporaneous 
remarks  on  this  subject.     He  said: 

I  had  not  the  slightest  idea  of  saying  anything  when  I  came 
here  this  evening,  but  as  I  sat  and  listened  to  the  things  that 
have  been  said  about  my  old  friend  and  benefactor,  Surgeon- 
General  Hammond,  I  feel  desirous  of  saying  a  word  of  my  pro- 
fessional relations  with  him. 

I  well  remember  my  first  introduction  to  General  Hammond. 
I  was  then  Assistant  Surgeon  in  one  of  the  New  York  regiments, 
and  had  occasion  to  report  at  Washington  for  duty,  my  regiment 
being  just  across  the  river.  Those  of  you  who  have  ever  seen 
Hammond  will  realize  that  when  he  entered  the  room  he  filled 
the  room.  He  certainly  filled  the  Surgeon-General's  office; 
there  can  be  no  question  about  that.  I  remember  well  the 
impresssion  which  he  made  upon  me.  He  was  neatly  dressed 
in  the  uniform  of  a  Brigadier- General.  His  vast  proportions 
were  gracefully  borne;  his  step  was  firm  and  elastic,  his  form 
erect,  his  voice  gentle,  yet  firm  and  penetrating. 

He  received  me  with  the  utmost  kindness,  although  he  knew 
nothing  whatever  of  me.  He  made  me  feel  at  home  imme- 
diately, and  detailed  one  of  the  staff  about  the  office  to  induct 
me  into  my  new  position.  For  some  considerable  time  after 
that  I  knew  him  only  as  I  came  in  contact  with  him  occasionally 
in  my  official  capacity.  After  a  year  of  service  in  the  volunteer 
forces,  I  conceived  the  idea  of  coming  up  for  examination  to  en- 
ter the  regular  army,  and  I  was  ordered  for  examination  before 
a  board,  of  which  General  Hammond  was  president.  I  had  been 
in  the  field  right  up  to  the  very  moment  of  the  assembling  of 


igco.J  HAMMOND'S  PROFESSIONAL  CAREER.  49 

the  board,  and  had  had  no  opportunity  whatever  to  prepare  my- 
self for  the  ordeal  which  was  before  me.  I  think  any  one  who 
went  through  that  will  lo  >k  back  upon  it  as  probably  the  hardest 
experience  of  his  life.  The  examination  lasted  a  week.  It  was 
for  the  most  part  a  written  examination.  We  were  placed  in 
rooms,  with  writing  material  and  a  list  of  questions,  and  we  had 
no  opportunity  of  refreshing  our  memory  in  any  way  with  regard 
to  the  subjects  before  us.  Preceding  that  had  been  a  general 
examination  calculated  to  elicit  a  man's  general  knowledge, 
memory  and  readiness.  Unless  a  man  passed  the  latter  satis- 
factorily he  was  not  permitted  to  come  up  for  the  real  profes- 
sional examination.  A  great  many  were  weeded  out  in  this  way. 
I  was  very  much  struck  by  the  shrewdness  of  the  questions 
which  were  put.  General  Hammond  was  the  instigator  of  the 
whole  thing,  and  he  asked  all  sorts  of  questions  calculated  to 
test  a  man's  general  information,  his  self-possession,  readiness 
and  general  fitness  outside  of  his  professional  attainments.  Dr. 
Hammond  said,  for  example,  that  a  medical  officer  would  come 
in  contact  more  or  less  with  the  medical  men  of  the  world;  that 
he  was  the  representative  of  the  army  of  the  United  States,  and 
that  besides  an  exact  knowledge  of  his  profession  it  was  neces- 
sary, for  the  credit  of  the  army  ot  the  United  States,  that  he 
should  be  a  man  of  general  parts;  hence,  the  preliminary  exami- 
nation was  of  the  most  diverse  character,  running,  for  instance, 
over  a  knowledge  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  Slates,  the 
composition  of  the  various  parts  of  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment, together  with  an  examination  into  history  and  into  Biblical 
literature.  One  of  the  questions  was  "  Where  was  St.  John 
when  he  wrote  the  Book  of  Revelations  ? "  I  happened  to 
remember  that  it  was  the  Island  of  Patmos,  very  much  to  my 
satisfaction.  At  the  last  only  17  out  of  70  received  commis- 
sions. 

Time  went  on  and  I  was  fortunate  enough  to  receive  a  com- 
mission in  the  regular  army,  and  was  stationed  at  Nashville, 
Tennessee,  and  had  charge  of  a  hospital  there.  Then  came  out 
an  order  from  the  Surgeon-General's  office  that  produced  more 
of  a  tempest  in  a  very  large  teapot  than  anything  that  perhaps 
could  have  emanated  from  that  office.  This  was  an  order  that 
calomel  should  be  stricken  from  the  supply  table  of  the  army. 
I  was  in  contact  at  that  time  with  Western  men,  surgeons  of  the 
army,  to  whom  calomel  was  almost  a  fetich;  they  began  with 


5o  HAMMOND'S  PROFESSIONAL  CAREER.  [May 

calomel,  they  continued  with  calomel,  and  they  ended  with 
calomel,  and  the  results  were  sometimes  very  disastrous.  Such 
a  multitude  of  cases  came  to  be  reported  finally  to  the  Surgeon- 
General  at  Washington,  of  extreme  salivation,  and  the  baneful 
consequences  of  such  medication,  that  he  determined  to  strike 
at  the  root  of  the  matter,  and  he  therefore  ordered  that  calomel 
should  not  be  furnished  longer  to  the  army.  The  commotion 
whichfollowed  that  order  would  be  difficult  to  describe.  I  at- 
tended a  meeting  called  by  the  medical  officers, the  meeting  being 
held  in  the  lecture  room  of  the  Nashville  Medical  College.  You 
might  have  imagined  from  the  warmth  of  expression  on  the  part 
of  some  of  the  speakers  that  the  question  was  as  important  as 
those  involved  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  Remon- 
strances were  framed  on  every  side,  and  indignant  protests  were 
sent  to  Washington,  but  they  did  not  disturb  Surgeon- General 
Hammond. 

It  so  happened  that  after  a  comparatively  brief  service  in  the 
regular  army  my  wife  was  seized  with  tuberculosis,  and  I  felt 
called  upon  to  provide  a  different  climate,  and  I  therefore  ten- 
dered my  resignation  from  the  army  with  the  intention  of  seek- 
ing another  climate  for  her.  My  resignation  was  accepted 
through  the  various  channels  up  to  and  including  the  Surgeon- 
General,  and  in  due  course  it  came  before  the  Adjutant- General 
at  Washington.  And  just  here  comes  the  wonderful  thing 
about  Hammond.  Though  he  had  charge  of  the  medical  service 
of  the  army,  and  had  300,000  men  on  his  mind,  he  remembered 
one  particular  man,  myself,  with  whom  he  had  not  had  much  to 
do,  and  he  took  the  trouble  to  write  me  a  personal  letter,  saying 
that  if  I  would  withdraw  my  resignation  he  would  send  me  to 
the  best  possible  climate  for  my  wife,  i.  e.,  New  Mexico.  I  ac- 
cepted his  kind  offer,  and  with  the  most  satisfactory  result. 
This  was  one  of  the  characteristics  of  the  man,  his  facility  in 
remembering  individuals,  even  with  such  large  matters  on  his 
mind. 

The  amount  of  reading  that  Hammond  could  digest  always 
excited  my  admiration.  I  have  been  told  that  while  persons 
generally  see  each  word  and  take  in  the  meaning,  word  after 
word,  Hammond  took  in  whole  sentences  at  once— in  other 
words,  instead  of  seeing  words  he  saw  and  read  by  sentences. 
He  read  with  wonderful  rapidity,  and  had  a  wonderful  memory. 
His  colossal  frame  was  a  fit  setting  for  his  capacious  mind. 


igoo.l  HAMMOND'S  PROFESSIONAL  CAREER.  51 

I  have  a  very  grateful  recollection  of  what  the  Surgeon- 
General  did  for  me,  not  only  in  the  army,  but  after  my  resigna- 
tion, some  seven  years  later.  When  I  returned  to  Vew  York,  a 
school  was  to  be  started — now  the  Long  Island  College  Hos- 
pital— and  without  any  solicitation  from  me  I  was  asked  to  take  a 
Chair  there.  I  was  made  professor  of  materia  medica  and  ther- 
apeutics— my  first  launching  in  medical  teaching. 

It  was  certainly  a  very  happy  thought  that  organized  this 
gathering  to  night  in  the  school  for  which  Dr.  Hammond  had 
done  so  much.  If  we  had  had  such  postgraduate  teaching- 
before  the  Civil  War  we  would  never  had  such  terrible  work  in 
surgery  in  that  war,  nor  would  it  have  been  necessary  to  issue 
that  remarkable  order  removing  calomel  from  the  supply  table 
of  the  armv. 


$&     R154.H182 


N48 


New  York  (City)  $m   York  post- 
graduate medical  school  and 
hospital  , 

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